Chronicles of the Draconic Knight
by Sharnorasian Empire
Summary: Two men find themselves on Lodoss, cut off from home and relying on what little they have, will that be enough to turn the tide? Deedlit/OC Pirotess/OC. Possible Parn/Shiris. Borrows elements from Dungeons and Dragons and Starcraft.
1. Chapter 1

Well this is a surprise birthday gift story for the Sharnorasian emperor and one of his old stories rewritten with new ideas so enjoy. Some may not like that I am not using his real name even in the first chapter but it's distinctive and he prefers his fantasy name for his characters and I respect that.

If you are from my other stories and have no idea what this anime series is goes as such.

Final notes: Xapferey as he prefers to be known HAS an eidetic memory, and he both praises and curses it, as it is a double-edged sword. (Namely for the fact that his memory is so powerful he is snacking on something to compensate for the energy drain). He is also a grandmaster of arms and 10th dan black belt in karate at the time this story occurs (and in reality). Secondly the intro follows the comics The Grey Witch and not the OVA show, this changes where Deedlit and Woodchuck are to begin with.

First few paragraphs do not give Xapferey's name, as he'll introduce himself by his preferred name afterwards.

*Pagebreak*

Light and Darkness, the final battle of the gods climaxed in a clash between Marfa, goddess of creation and Kardis, goddess of destruction. At the climax of their final battle, the land was split and a new continent was formed; with her final breath, Kardis cursed the land, and Marfa struck the land herself, splitting the land twice, forming Lodoss the accursed island and the cursed island of Marmo just south of Lodoss proper.

*Pagebreak*

'Thoughts'

6 months before the events of Record of Lodoss War

Chapter 1: The beginnings

A man stood in his home, an iPhone jammed under his ear as he changed the light bulbs in his home. "Yes, yes I'm bringing the damn thing Mike, just you be ready for me to pick you up when we go to the firing range. You bringing your shotgun and Glock?"

"Yep."

"You know, if I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times, your mother should have named you Curt." An inaudible thrum of power built up in the room as Mike and his friend spoke over the phone.

"Haha." Michael said sarcastically.

"Seriously though…" There was a loud zap and crackle of static before the line went dead, the energy had reached threshold and blasted the man into unconsciousness. As he fell backwards, he passed through a newly formed portal to destinations unknown.

*Pagebreak*

In the wilderness south of the lands of Allania, the air shivered before an audible thump was heard as the unconscious body of a man was dropped on the ground. An hour later the man woke up with a splitting headache as he looked around.

"WHAT THE HELL?" He yelled, only to groan and grab his splitting head. "Who? What? How? Gmpghm." He let out a wordless groan of confused frustration. "Ughh relax, relax, relax… Ok that's not going to happen right now." The man took several deep breaths and about five minutes to meditate and try to get a grip on his emotions. Once the man had calmed down enough to be able to think coherently he looked around again before spotting his backpack. He went to it and began sorting through the contents for anything useful.

'Gun intact, pistol intact, ammo intact, big box of ammo for both, check… no food… no water, empty 1 liter pop bottle with lid, well some good news at least.' He thought to himself as he looked for a river to dunk his head in. 'First order of business, deal with headache then find out where I am and how I got here.'

The man picked himself up until he found a river and splashed water on his face; being a little wary of the idea of pollution in the water he filled the bottle, though not wanting to risk dehydration in an unknown area. But considering he went from the inside of his home to an open landscape in a few moments, that and his phone reported it had no signal now when he looked at it.

The man sighed again walked down the side of the river and came to a road. The road was a poor quality dirt road, with lots of pockmarks and small pits; either this road was traveled frequently or a large party had passed by some time ago. Continuing up the poor quality road, the man found a partially broken box off to the side.

He searched the box and he found a small pouch and a cloak. The man tipped the pouch's clinking contents into his hand and found a small handful of silver and gold coins. Now turning to the cloak, the style and stitching matched that of medieval styles seen in his History of Middle Ages textbooks. The cloak was brown, rough-spun, almost meeting the quality of a well off peasant. The man shrugged and wrapped himself in the cloak, eyeing the forming rainclouds ruefully.

The man continued walking for over an hour until he came to a guarded bridge. The guards were dressed in medieval equipment. Both dressed in decent mail, each with a short sword at their hip and each wielding a halberd and both were watching him approach.

'If this is a hallucination, which is unlikely considering my family has no history of such psychotic issues, it's a very elegant one,' He thought.

Another factor that was considered was that hallucinations were never this complete; more likely to be auditory than visual or olfactory, and even less likely to include all three at once. Not without severe cognitive damage, anyway. The second explanation was that he had somehow crossed dimensions to a more fantasy-based world, which was just as, if not more unlikely a scenario.

The man sighed and walked up to the bridge and stood facing the gates hoping they would let him pass and give some information that he could use.

"Halt, identify yourself." One of the guards spoke. The man shrugged, when in Rome…

"Greetings good sirs, I am a lost traveler and due to an accident lost much of my equipment. I was hoping to find lodgings for the night and to replace my lost gear."

"Very well, there is a toll to pass though here traveler." The guard said with an expectant look.

"How much?"

"Five copper pieces." The man sighed and rolled his eyes mentally as he paid the guard; while paying, the man decided he would have to have a name in this world and what better than his preferred fantasy name: Xapferey.

The guard nodded before waving Xapferey through the gate. "Would you mind telling me where I am? I'm quite quite lost." Xapferey said with a disarming grin.

"This is the village of Allanis, in southern Allania," the guard offered "Though be warned we treat theft and other crimes very harshly here." Xapferey nodded politely to the guard while the other stared at him suspiciously and watched Xapferey walk down the path into the town.

Xapferey quickly found a decent inn that he could stay at during the night. Tomorrow he would have to get money, most likely by selling his mother's bracelet that he kept on him for sentimental purposes after the death of his parents. After paying for a hearty stew and a room for the night, Xapferey thought on his situation.

'Ok, I'm in the Record of Lodoss War world, provided this is not a hallucination. Wait, hallucinations can be visual and auditory, but to have smell hallucinations I would have had to have a seizure and I would have felt that. Ergo this is real, however unlikely, well hopefully there is a god smiling on me right now. So, first order of business: Sleep, have to sell the bracelet, I'll hate myself for it but it's worthwhile because I need money and have none aside from the 9 silver remaining which will not last long. Next order of business, get a sword, decent quality and some armor as well. Afterwards, meditate and see if I can use magic, it might be possible after passing through whatever brought me here.'

The next day, Xapf bought himself some breakfast and went to the bustling market; he found an interested buyer who would trade him a series of items and 800 gold coins. The items included a set of thick black and silver armor; obviously well-made, it covered his chest and back, as well as parts of his arms and legs. It even had a padded vest for underneath and a matching helmet.

The longsword was a beautiful, with an elegant pommel and cross-guard done in gold and black. The cross-guard curved both upwards to help catch blades and downwards to form a barrier to protect against blows to his hands. The blade however was 4 feet in length and the hilt could be held comfortably with either one or both hands.

The merchant included a heavy duty traveling sack with regular adventuring gear such as a winter blanket, spare clothes, a couple hundred feet of rope, light and heavy traveling cloak, a map of Lodoss and a grappling hook; Xapferey refused the offered bow, considering his G11 a far more reliable ranged weapon. Though said weapon was currently disassembled in his modern backpack.

Xapferey purchased a horse and decided to ride north, to see which version of Lodoss he was in, either the OVA, or the Chronicles, a thought came to mind which made him smile; he might even meet Deedlit before she met Parn.

Xapferey stopped at an inn on the way to the capitol city of Allania to overlook his gear and the bag. Opening the bag, Xapferey found a letter pinned to the inner lip.

Hello Xapferey.

If you're reading this then you can consider yourself lucky considering I heard your request and decided to leave you a few presents. Within this bag of holding is portable equipment for making more ammo, a few magic items: (Ring of force shield, Protective ring of the third circle, cloak of resistance third circle) and something to awaken some magical powers if you don't have them already. Consider the clothes I put within an additional bonus, now go get her tiger. You know who I mean.

X.A.S – High Lord of those of Intelligence Born.

P.S I know you know who I am, but don't spoil it for others.

P.P.S Circles refer to the + level in case you're unaware

Xapferey stared in shock at the letter before he laughed in surprise. 'I guess there really is a god looking out for me,' he thought in amusement before he scrounged for the items and changed. Afterwards, Xapferey slept and rode onwards the next day. He kept riding until he reached the capitol city Allan. Once in Allania it was easy to find a nice inn to stay at, the celebrations for the heir had not begun yet. Xapferey was sure he was early to the story, by how much though he did not know. He stabled his horse and walked through the city, admiring the architecture having not indulged his love of medieval cities and history in a long time.

An hour later sounds of a scuffle caught Xapferey's attention; he passed into a back alley where he found a very familiar blond High Elf he knew to be Deedlit being harassed by a small group of thugs. She had already divested herself of two of the thugs, so Xapferey ran to assist her. Xapferey ignored the taunts exchanged as he blindsided one of the thugs only to get clouted by the elf.

"Calm down, I'm on your side here." He said as he smacked another thug down, then snap-kicked one that was about to blind-side the elf. 'Yeesh that smarts.' Xapf thought to himself. The two quickly eliminated the last of the thugs attacking Deedlit and they turned to face each other.

"I guess I should thank you." She said, as Xapferey looked her over. Deedlit was wearing the more elegant leather boots and bracers from Chronicles of the Heroic Knight timeline, rather that her expected baggy leather wrapped boots and bracers. Her leather armor actually protected her torso rather than her upper chest in the anime, and she was armed with her rapier.

"Not at all milady, I'm happy to be of help." Deedlit looked over Xapferey herself, covertly admiring the high quality gear, clothes and man himself though the G11 over his shoulder gained a curious and confused look, as it did not look like any weapon she had seen.

"I'm Deedlit, and you are?"

"Xapferey, pleasure to make your acquaintance Deedlit." Xapferey said brushing his lips on her knuckles.

"Ooh a gentleman, let me treat you to dinner as thanks, so you don't get the impression that I have no manners."

"That sounds wonderful Deedlit." The two went to a nearby tavern and ordered an excellent meal consisting of a side of beef with some vegtables, nice wine, and a bowl of peas, which they ate as they talked.

"So tell me, where are you from?"

" Far away lands, you'd probably never heard of them."

"Oh? Try me."

"Lands are called Canada." Deedlit shook her head, obviously not recognizing the name.

"Sounds like you are far from your home, I have never heard of such a land on Lodoss."

"Due to a strange series of events, I ended up lost, tossed about and recently found my way here to Allan."

"I am sorry to hear that." Deedlit said before she continued, "you seem like a skilled fighter, aren't you?"

"I don't like to brag, but I believe I can hold my own." Xapferey said modestly.

"And what are your goals Xapferey?" Deedlit asked politely.

"I'm not sure if my friend who was with me at the time made it to Lodoss or not; and I feel the odds of finding him would be better if I stayed in an area he's more likely to pass through then slog across all of Lodoss."

"Sounds sensible." Deedlit agreed. The two finished their meal when Xapferey spoke.

"Deedlit would it possible for us to meet tomorrow?" Deedlit smiled at his somewhat hesitant question.

"Sure, perhaps a day in the markets?"

"Sounds great." Xapferey said with a smile as they parted for the night.

End Chapter 1. Well here's hoping everyone will be in character neither I or the emperor have written stories in this fandom for me about 15 almost 16 years and about 13 years for the Sharnorasian Emperor. Parn and the others will not be showing up for awhile.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N

**Bold** is the Draconic language, translations are at bottom of page

'' are thoughts

Chapter 2: Walks, talks and experiments.

Xapferey awoke, feeling refreshed. As he looked through the bag, he realized it was a Bag of Holding, the largest size one could get, and found what the letter spoke of that would grant him magic. Another letter was wrapped around the two vials with the glowing green and blue liquids.

_Hey Xapf, a word of advice, drink these on an empty stomach or you'll regret it. The green one will enhance your genetic code so it'll be easier to call forth your Draconic heritage. As you know, you can call it forwards to become a half-Dragon in time through the Dragon Disciple path; the second is a vial full of raw mana to build your magical core faster. _

_You'll become a spell/runecrafter I'm sure. I also included a book for you to get the basics and a strong grounding in runecrafting and magic, good luck._

_X.A.S_

'Well I don't have to meet Deedlit for another four hours…' Xapferey plugged his nose and gagged down the green liquid, then forced himself to choke down the blue vial before he collapsed in severe pain. It took an hour before Xapferey even felt remotely like going anywhere, and another five minutes to pull himself together enough to munch an apple and a small block of cheese to tide him over till lunch. 'Wow that hurt like a *****.' Xapferey swore to himself as he left his room at the Crystal Forest Inn.

Xapferey wound up being a few minutes early, as did Deed. She gave a small smile when she saw him. "Hello Xapferey."

"Hello Deedlit, how are you today?"

"I'm fine thank you." Xapferey walked with her and they made small talk as they browsed, Deedlit asked what Xapferey did before he came to Lodoss.

"I was training to be a healer for the mind, we did not have magic, and those who claimed to have it were charlatans and fakers. I am pretty sure this is not the same for Lodoss. But what we lacked in magic we made up for in technology and machines." Deedlit nodded in understanding, Xapferey was careful not to go too in depth, or for the fact he was from another plane of existence yet; and certainly not to mention he was aware of what was going on in Lodoss as of this moment; at least not yet.

The two continued around the market, and picked up food for a lunch in the park. Deedlit watched Xapferey covertly as they ate; something seemed off about him, something unnatural to the current world. Deedlit felt the spirit of air whisper that something about him was foreign to them, beyond human.

Deedlit then looked at the man himself, he was a tall broadly muscled young man with lustrous dark brown hair that fell neatly to his shoulders. His face was slightly rounded and boyish though his eyes were light and keen. Deedlit was wondering what was passing though his mind for the few moments she watched him covertly.

Xapferey was obviously well off considering he was dressed in a high quality black-laced tunic, leggings, boots, and cloak though the cloak had a tasteful and elegant gold trim with the designs of dragons flying near the base. As she noted before, the way he moved, the subtle grace of an obviously well trained fighter who had spend many years studying the craft.

Xapferey however noticed the slightly red tinge to Deedlit's face and smiled mentally, "So Deedlit, what do you want to do now?"

"There's a small forest not far from here, I was wondering if you would join me on a walk."

"Certainly." Xapfery joined the High Elf on the walk through the forest. "It's so much quieter here than back home. All the bustle and noise often drove me into the solitude of my home."

"Oh?"

"You have to understand Deedlit, our growth as a people is due to technology; magic in truth, and please don't take this as an insult before you hear my reasoning...magic tends to makes societies with access to it lazy." Deedlit looked at Xapferey in mild annoyance.

"How did you come by this reasoning?" She asked, deciding to hear him out.

"Think of it this way, would people seek to understand how to dam a river, with the materials required for it to be strong and endure for decades to come? This would require tremendous effort when a mage can just chant a spell and direct the flow of the river as they wished, much easier don't you agree?"

"If magic is so easy, then every village should have such a spellcaster… So why do they not have such casters?"

"Because though magic is mostly fictional from my perspective, I studied enough of the theories to make a decent case and what I see is this… Magic is hard to learn, be it if one learns at a college or if one is born with powers and it takes time; decades if not more, few if any reach such levels from human standpoints, you Elves have the advantage there."

"Fair point."

"Also consider the scarcity of those who can teach magic at advanced levels, these teachers would want to control the amount of students they receive. What do you think would happen if one of these students went rogue?"

"You certainly make a convincing case in that regard Xapferey, but what do you mean by lazy?"

"What I'm trying to say is that magic stagnates scientific progress, that's the point I'm trying to make. Personally the biggest problem I see is trying to maintain a balance, of magic and technology, if a balance could be made." Deedlit nodded thoughtfully.

"I see." There was an small silence before Xapferey changed the subject.

"So tell me, why is an Elf outside her homelands? I was under the assumption most Elves distrust and are even hostile to humans."

"Not all, a few outright are hostile to humans, me I was curious about humans, and I wished to learn more." Deedlit reached for an apple but Xapferey decided to test a theory, and with a slight twitch of his will the apple subtly avoided Deedlit's grasp. Deedlit frowned in confusion, certain she had grasped correctly, but it happened three more times before she caught on. "Oh you." Deedlit swatted at Xapferey playfully "so you have magic then? I did not hear you cast a spell."

"Yes, but the type of magic I was using there is called psionics, willpower, I just have to focus on my target." To demonstrate Xapferey levitated and caused an apple to do minor tricks in the air like a loop-de-loop, Deedlit nodded and snagged the apple to munch as well. "Oi." Xapferey protested to the smirking Elf who threw an apple that he caught easily. "But psionics alone are not the full extent of my new powers…"

Xapferey broke off and his eyes flicked covertly to the now very quietly rustling bushes, Deedlit's eyes widened at both what she heard and how sensitive Xapferey's hearing was before a group of goblins rushed out of the bushes. These Goblins were starving and desperate, having evaded patrols by the skin of their teeth at times so they charged the two.

Xapferey lifted his hand and tried to cast a spell. "**Arcaniss xkhat nil'gnosi di bekilip**." (1) As he chanted, he felt a rush of energy flow down his arm and out of his hand.

Said energy manifested as four glowing orbs of force in the form of a Magic Missile spell. The energy orbs shot from his palm and tossed back a couple goblins, so he decided to bring out some bigger guns, mindful of Deedlit's duel with a couple goblins. Xapferey gestured and two Scorching Rays blasted another pair of goblins, leaving their burnt corpses on the ground while another lunged from the bushes at Deedlit to try and stab her in the back after she finished her goblins. "DEEDLIT." Xapferey yelled and yanked his pistol out and double-tapped the goblin in the head.

Deedlit yelped at the furious cracks that assaulted her sensitive ears before a third crack echoed and the last goblin lay dead on the ground with a hole in its chest. Xapferey holstered his gun and raced to Deedlit "Are you alright?"

"Yes, what was that?"

"A weapon of my people."

"Why such a device?"

"I don't have an excuse for it really Deedlit, if we did not develop them, someone worse would have and used it against us." Deedlit grunted in response but sighed, grudgingly understanding Xapferey's reasons. He _had_ just saved her life with said weapon. With permission, Xapferey walked Deedlit back to her inn, as he turned to leave Deedlit caught his wrist.

"Please do not think me mad at you, I would hope to see you tomorrow." Xapferey half turned and smiled at Deedlit.

"I look forwards to it." Xapferey said as he left for his inn and pulled out his book on magic, flipping to the parts on runecrafting. According to his book, runecrafting was one of the most versatile forms of magic, rather than relying on enchantments and specialized spells and skills, runecrafting required knowledge of one of the magical languages like Draconic, Celestial, or Abyssal and a malleable surface on which runes could be etched.

The book had multiple sections, all organized around enhancing items, or creating wards, but those took ridiculous amounts of time to create.

But one rune combination caught Xapferey's eye, it would enhance the protective value of armor, it could offer leather the durability and protection of extensive metal armor, without adversely affecting the material. Obviously many items had a limit to the amount of runic enhancements they could receive, though unlike regular enchanted items, runes could be changed around to have different effects. In other worlds, Runecrafters were rare and highly sought after due to their skills with magic, though Xapferey wondered if Wort, the great sage had any knowledge of runecrafting or others with the skill on Lodoss.

Xapferey also decided to speak with Myce, the gold Dragon ruling the kingdom of Moss and Bramd in the north. Even if the Dragons were unknowing of the craft, they would certainly wish to learn, for what self-respecting Dragon was ignorant of the Draconic language.

When it came to the runes on items, Xapferey would have to gain some more power before he could make the runes permanent. Though gaining that level of power would not happen for a few months at least. Xapferey continued to study and experiment with runecrafting for the day before he went to bed, exhausted from all the magic he had used.

*Pagebreak*

The next day Xapferey left for the woods early and alone for privacy. Once at an isolated clearing he began his martial art katas for an hour before switching to his sword katas. His blade whirled and spun expertly in his hands, the sword was perfect in his grip as if it had been an extension of his body.

After his katas, Xapferey went back into the town and purchased several sheets of metal, and using the book of magic he owned, he copied the Draconic symbols onto the sheet of metal, and with some guess work and experimentation he empowered the durability enhancing runes with magic, causing them to activate.

The novice runecrafter then flipped the metal sheets so that the runes were hidden from view and used his will to shuffle them as best he could randomly. Three sheets were runecrafted, the other three were not. He was trying to get as random an experiment as possible and without discerning which of the six plates were runecrafted; he arranged them in such a way that he could shoot them.

Afterwards he grabbed a quill and inkpot from his bag and began writing in an empty journal he found within. Xapferey chose to write in Draconic just to keep things uniform and prevent unauthorized readings of his journal

_Entry 1, runecrafting experiment 1 _

_June 8__th__ 9:01 am._

_Initial usages of magic have put me around the 10__th__ level/circle of power, runes are permanent it seems at my power level… I could be wrong but I'm being optimistic. I leave this journal to provide a record that may outlive me, so others with similar abilities can replicate my results. _

_Materials: 6 sheets of iron of equal quality and thickness (3 runecrafted for durability increase), Glock 17 handgun using 9x19 millimeter (mm) parabellum bullets (non-armor piercing). H&amp;K G11 using 4.73x25 mm caseless bullets. _

_Procedures: 3 sheets of iron were runecrafted using the durability rune to increase their resistance to penetration and damage. The sheets were then sufficiently randomized using psionics to shuffle the plates at a rate at which the caster lost track of which plate was which, and all plates are visually indistinguishable on the non-runecrafted side. This is to control any possible biases on which plates are shot and how they are shot (unknown if biases can affect magical plates but better safe in as fair a comparison as possible). _

_Tests consist of three rounds from each firearm; checks will be undertaken to test penetration levels and amount of fractures in the plates." _

Xapferey began each test, while meticulously writing down the descriptions and sketching the damage on inserted pages with accompanying notes and diagrams. Then he outlined the results. 

_Results: The results matched initial hypothesis, runecrafted (Rc) iron plates resisted the bullet penetration by 60% on plate one, 75% on plate two and 80% of plate 3, quality of runic protection increased with practice, plate 3 successfully stopped the 4.73 bullet, whereas plate 2 stopped the 9mm bullet but the 4.73 penetrated… _

"What in the name of the gods are you doing Xapferey?" Deedlit's voice demanded, "I heard those cracks of your weapon all the way from the city."

"I was doing tests of my magical runes, I wanted to practice before I applied them to something important like armor, and how better to test them than on a weapon that was generally consistent in its damage?" Deedlit sighed quietly and nodded her understanding.

"What did you discover then?"

"I need more work on my runes to get a proper consistent result."

"I thought your people did not have magic beyond charlatans, how do you explain your powers then?" Xapferey decided to fudge some details here and there.

"True enough, but it turns out I am what's called a spontaneous caster, I do not need to memorize my spells after using them, I was in essence born with my powers though they did not manifest till later."

"Oh… I see, so you are learning the full extent of your powers then?"

"Yes, but I feel they will grow in time as well, I have discovered that my runecrafting skills allow for many enhancements for armor, weapons and various other items."

"Such as?"

"Such as I could make your leather armor offer the same protection as plate mail with the right runes, it would remain leather but offer the protection equal to metal."

"Truly? Such a thing would have your skills sough for in all of Lodoss."

"I know, which is why I want to practice and build up a power base before trying such a thing, though I would be happy to offer my runecrafting abilities to you free of charge." Deedlit gave a surprised smile.

"And I would be most grateful for your generosity." Xapferey smiled at the blond Elf and the two spent the rest of the day discussing magic before parting for the night and agreeing to meet again, though Xapferey promised to include Deedlit as he ran his tests. Deedlit had requested such because she was curious about his magic and even slightly about those strange weapons of his.

*Pagebreak*

Over the course of the next week, Deedlit and Xapferey began experimenting with various runecrafting techniques as outlined in the book X.A.S gave him though he decided not to tell her his suspicions on who X.A.S was yet.

On the day marking the 18th day Xapferey had been on Lodoss, Deedlit asked him more about Canada.

"Canada is a peaceful land, we maintain an army like any other but it is far smaller than our ally in the south. One of my friends works for the military and I thought about it for a short time myself, but I decided not to."

"Do you have any other friends? A love perhaps."

"Yes I do have other friends, I am not courting anyone yet… I have yet to find the right woman." Deedlit smiled pleasantly.

"I'm sure you would have no problems with that."

"Thank you Deedlit," Xapferey said before returning to the original topic at her prompting. "So our society is one where we try to strive for equality of all, regardless of race or gender." Deedlit was surprised at this idea, it something she had not considered; but it made sense to her considering how Xapferey didn't treat her with suspicion or scorn because she was an Elf.

"It sounds like an interesting place to live, any forests? Elves?"

"I suppose there might be, deeply hidden from the rest of the world, but I doubt it. But what I meant by races in this case was different types of Humans… I know it's silly, but without races like Elves or Dwarves around, our people separate ourselves based on the parts of the world we originate from and the color of our skin." Deedlit raised her eyebrows at him at the thought.

"You humans are such a… competitive race." Xapferey rolled his eyes sympathetically.

"I know, I know. But like I said I don't discriminate based on those reasons alone. I try to judge the person within, not without. By logic alone, my people are Human regardless of where we are from or the color of our skin." Deedlit nodded in agreement, it was all she could do in the face of his reasoning.

Another week passed with them slowly growing closer and they began sparring together, Deedlit obviously had the advantage in speed and agility whereas Xapferey could overpower her and the spars could go both ways, though Xapferey was getting faster and stronger over time.

Deedlit began noticing little changes in Xapferey as time passed; the gold in his eyes became more prevalent though only because she had an eye for such subtle changes. When she approached him on the topic, he said it was deliberate and expected. His explanation was that just because magic was not common in Canada did not mean one of his ancestors did not have 'unusual' heritage or come from elsewhere.

A/N: Two is rewritten, bigger and hopefully better, almost twice the original size.

Translations

Draconic:

1) Mana become missiles of destruction

2) Mana become rays of fire (closest translation I could get)


	3. Chapter 3

A/N I don't like time gaps normally but this one is necessary

Secondly there ARE stats for Zerglings in the D&amp;D sites and require the Improved Familiar feat and being a 6th level caster. Xapferey is by all intents and purposes the equivalent of level 10 by this point.

Thirdly, Nethalus' story will be written in time by him, I just have to encourage him to get to it and the man needs prompting, I'll probably need my katana to get him moving.

Chapter 3: Love and friends.

_6 months later _

Over the course of the last 6 months, Xapferey had continued to see Deedlt, and begin what would be considered dating by modern standards, though the two did not start officially courting till 3 months into their relationship. For both of them that had been a nerve-wracking moment, but not as bad as the time Xapferey snuck off to summon a familiar.

Deedlit had followed Xapferey only to find him undergoing a strange magical ritual, which summoned a strange quadruped creature covered in spiky chitin. Its limbs ended in two-fingered claws, a pair of short tusks poked out from its mouth, and two scythe-shaped barbs protruded from a pair of long, thick antennae-like structures and a pair of wings protruded from its back. Xapferey had summoned a modified Zergling to be his familiar.

Deedlit was surprised at the need of a familiar, but Xapferey had explained that since he was not from Lodoss, his magic and how it developed was different to native magic users. Deedlit accepted the explanation offered and Xapferey introduced her to his familiar, which he named Abathur in 'honor' of a unique Zerg character from _Starcraft II:_ _Heart of the Swarm_. Familiars aside, Xapferey was beyond enjoying his growing relationship with Deedlit. Of course part of that relationship was to explain the changes that were occurring in Xapferey.

By now the first of the Draconic changes were showing, though not unless one knew what to look for. Xapferey's finger and toe nails were turning to claws, and his teeth were growing sharper and stronger, golden scales were forming on the still covered parts of his arms and legs, and his sense of smell, sight and hearing sharpened to exceptional levels.

Xapferey sighed in contentment; he was due to meet Deedlit outside the city for another walk in the woods when a scent caught his attention and a whistle of something small passing through the air towards him. **"Fethos." (1) **He barked, an invisible shield snapped into being in front of him, stopping the weighted chain. Xapferey sprang upwards, the magical runes inscribed into his boots enhancing his jump so he alighted on a tree branch, high above the ground.

Xapferey peeked out and nearly got snagged by another chain; he sent a few frost ray cantrips back as a form of 'suppressing fire' only to have three throwing darts miss him by a hair. Xapferey jumped towards a few branches only to halt as he ran into a very familiar Dark Elf.

Pirotess smirked at him and lunged with her rapier. Xapferey parried quickly with his longsword and lunged forwards with an overhand chop. Pirotess stepped back from the forceful blow and swept low only to find Xapferey had blocked her again.

Xapferey attempted to sweep her legs but Pirotess leapt over the blow. Xapferey gritted his teeth and began advancing, focusing on trying to overpower the slender dark elf with his powerful sweeping attacks. But Pirotess skipped away, and Xapferey followed, three times they exchanged and three times Pirotess jumped away from the powerful chops, her slender rapier not well suited for parrying the heavy blows from Xapferey's longsword. Xapferey winced as his next blow split a tree branch; he just knew Deedlit would give him hell for that move.

'Ugh I really should have practiced sparring with Deedlit more.' Xapferey mentally grumbled as he slipped around a thrust. Pirotess was a very skilled fighter; one of the best Xapferey had fought against, possibly better than him in some ways. Xapferey lunged forwards and managed to shoulder check Pirotess causing her to yelp and fall out of the tree. A whistle of parting air caught Xapferey's attention too late as a pair of chains wrapped around his legs binding them before a tug caused him to lose balance before another pair bound his arms. Xapferey crashed into the ground with a loud grunt of pain and indignation and glowered at the dark Elf.

"Why exactly were you attacking me?" He demanded as he noticed Abathur standing over the sprawled unconscious form of his friend Michael.

"I want you to call that thing off of Nethalus." Xapferey raised an eyebrow, though he knew Nethalus was the chosen fantasy name for his friend. Pirotess stiffened a moment later as cool sharp metal rested on the back of her neck.

"Back away from Xapferey peasant." Deedlit ordered Pirotess who stepped back with Deedlit staying near her with Deedlit's blade still touching Pirotess' neck.

"Your reputation for being a stuck up princess seems well deserved." Pirotess sniped in reply; Xapferey continued to squirm to try and escape the chains and had no desire to be near a brewing Elven catfight.

"Hi, yes, excuse me… A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE NICE IF IT'S NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE." He roared at the two women. His roar caught the attention of Abathur to him, and with a careful application of talons, the Zergling snapped the chains apart. "Thank you Abathur." Xapferey said petting his Zergling, which made a purring noise as Xapferey stood up then sent his Zergling to get his sword, which had fallen somewhere nearby. Xapferey walked off to his stirring friend and Xapferey waited for him to wake up and focus on him. "Hey… Nethalus,"

"Hi… Xapferey." Xapferey squatted down near his friend and spoke with a grin on his face.

"You know, out of all the times we played Starcraft, and of the many hundreds of times I beat you, this is honestly the first time where I took you out with a single Zergling." Xapferey backed away now shorting with laughter while Nethalus gave him his typical I-am-not-amused stony expression. Xapferey quickly regained his composure after his laughter and helped his friend up and pulled him into a bear hug, eliciting a slight pained hiss.

Xapferey looked his friend over; Nethalus was an inch shorter than him still, but his eyes held hard experience, something they did not hold before they came to Lodoss. Nethalus now held himself like a fighter, keeping aware of his surroundings, his muscles loose and ready for action, though the training Xapferey gave him before they came to Lodoss helped with that.

"So what have you been doing?" Nethalus asked after the two shared a man hug.

"Making a life for myself, you?"

"Same, though considering where I ended up that's been somewhat delayed; I've been here for about 9 months." Xapferey shook his head and sighed.

"_That's something that puzzles me; I went through a portal I'm guessing… but how would you be here for longer? I've done enough research on magic similar to what I wield to theorize likely possibilities." Xapferey then took what Nethalus said "Marmo I'm guessing." Nethalus nodded in response despite his friend's obviously rhetorical question. "So, going to introduce me to your friend?" He asked, while pursing his lips slightly in warning to Neth about 'spoilers.' _

"Xapferey, this is Pirotess, my… you're the history buff, you tell me."

"Depends, are you getting married or are just 'getting together?'"

"Getting married, we both love each other very much." Xapferey smirked, he was glad he had spend several years teaching his friend how to speak Draconic.

"**Svanoa tonn jahus coi ekess xett jacioniv?" (2) **(How hard was it to persuade her?).

"**Wux tir ti tuor ekess vucot." (3) **(You don't want to know).

Xapferey winced slightly at his friend's comment; that was bad, when Nethalus said that, it was probably for the best to not know.

"**Svabol shinalta ekess wux?" (4) **(What happened to you?)

"**Tenamalo, wux tir ti tuor ekess vucot." (5) (**Again, you don't want to know)

"Ugh, **xoalir ekess itrewic irthir ekik di wux ui hefoc xoalir ekess itrewic ulk'igh de Smaug." (6) (**Ugh, trying to get information out of you is like trying to get money from Smaug**)***

Nethalus glared there was no way he was that bad, though Xapferey was feeling quite smug and vindicated. Nethalus just glared at his friend before shaking his head and stepping away.

"The term is betrothed by the way." Xapferey said to finally answer Nethalus' question. Nethalus nodded and muttered a spell, which disguised Pirotess as an attractive darker-skinned human woman.

"Our mutual 'higher' friend gave me that spell." Nethalus explained to Xapferey about the spell; Xapferey nodded in response as the four of them walked to the city while Abathur burrowed nearby to wait.

An hour later saw Pirotess and Nethalus getting a room nearby at the same inn, celebrations for the king's heir were beginning to get underway and the two were lucky to get one of the last available rooms. Xapferey went out walking to find Deedlit. She'd been avoiding Pirotess like the plague, and he found her being picked on by the same people who'd been harassing her the first time they met. The group harassing Deedlit found themselves telekinetically thrown into the nearby stone wall.

"Here we are again, I told you last time you pulled this stunt again you would regret it," Xapferey thought for a time and smirked dangerously as he created a spell that would be perfect for these men, so he raised his hand and incanted the long spell "**Shartleg nomenoi hofibai svaust bevi lowd sia itov sari wer trilvol si tuor. Sjek astahii xoa ekess levnim lyriki persvek vi svaion idol nomeno chikohk nishka affect astahi huena throdenilt." ** (Transform these fools who dare attack my love into the image I desire. If they attempt to harm others in a similar way this curse shall affect them once more).

The small group was transformed into a group of monks, and the first began chanting a verse in Latin before smacking himself in the head with his bible, then the group followed sort. Xapferey sighed knowing that only he and Nethalus would understand the reference but it made him feel better.

Deedlit watched the group walking away chanting and occasionally hitting themselves on the head before she turned to Xapferey and raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Care to explain what that was my love?"

"Cultural reference dear Deedlit, those fools failed to learn their lessons the last time they attempted to harass you so I created a special spell for them; each time they try to bully a someone in the same way the spell will take effect. Every time their penance period wears off they have a chance to learn, hopefully they will."

"The spell will not harm them?"

"No, they will have time to eat and sleep as necessary." Deedlit shook her head with a smile.

"Thank you Xapferey."

"My pleasure as always," he said as they walked back to the Crystal Forest Inn, Xapferey caught a glance of Parn walking around gawking at the sights as they headed back to the inn but brushed it off, there would be time to immerse himself in the main Lodoss story soon.

Making their way into the inn, Xapferey noticed Slayn at a table with Gihm, Not far from Nethalus and the disguised Pirotess. Xapferey sat down in front of Nethalus and gave him his best questioning gaze.

"I'll tell you later." He said to Xapferey who shrugged in acceptance… for now. In the meantime, Xapferey noticed Slain eyeing Deedlit in curiosity, noticing this, Xapferey was thinking on how he could get the two groups to meet, but the answer was eluding him until he felt something pulling him outside then inn.

"I'm going to get some air, I'll be back in a bit." Xapferey said, he gave Deedlit a kiss on the cheek as he left; as he walked he wondered what that pulling feeling was. Possibly a form of foresight, but it was not one of his spells, it was beyond his powers at the moment. 'Gods meddling, I suppose I asked for it considering the god in question.' As he walked, he noticed Parn approaching, the poor boy was drunk, obviously having had a mug of ale too many.

Xapferey cringed as Parn tripped and fell to the pavement in a tremendous clatter of armor and stone.

"Yeesh… you alright there?"

"'M fine." Parn mumbled.

"Where are you staying?"

"The Crystal Forest inn, it is supposed to be around here I think." Parn muttered and Xapferey rolled his eyes amusingly.

"Come on let's get you up and home, I do not envy your hangover." As Xapferey helped Parn up Deedlit came racing outside.

"Xapferey are you alright I heard a tremendous clatter… who is this?"

"A young man staying with his party at the same inn I am, the clatter you heard was him tripping and crashing onto the ground." Deedlit nodded with a slight wince but she helped Xapferey pick Parn off the ground and help him into the inn, the two carried him through the door.

"Come on snap out of it." Deedlit said to Parn.

"I'm fine." He grumbled drunkenly, Xapferey looked up to see Etoh and Slayn staring at them and Etoh spoke.

"Parn you're drunk." Etoh said surprised at his friend, while Slain stood up to greet Xapferey and Deedlit.

"Excuse me you two, I'm Slayn, thank you for bringing Parn back. We'd best leave him to sleep it off. Etoh take care of him." The named priest nodded and went to take care of his friend, while the dwarf smirked behind his mug of ale.

"How pathetic him getting drunk like that or did some pretty girl poison him with her charm." Deedlit being an Elf could not resist a barb at the Dwarf due to their racial rivalries but Xapferey put an arm on Deedlit's.

"My love for all the respect I have for the Elves I do not understand this ridiculous feud with Dwarves." He said quietly, Deedlit huffed quietly but acquiesced to his words and remained silent. Slayn in the meantime watched silently. Slayn like any mage could sense magical potential and Xapferey's was staggering, he easily could become an archmage with sufficient time and effort.

Slayn could feel the power inscribed into the equipment the two wore and was curious to this power; it seemed similar to enchanted objects yet different. Enchantments were static, unchanging, the magical flows suggested that these 'enchantments' could be altered or even removed by the caster with ease.

Slayn smiled in a friendly manner and spoke to Xapferey and Deedlit. "Won't you sit down? I'd like to talk to you." Xapferey nodded and sat down with Deedlit beside him

"My name is Xapferey," Xapferey said as he introduced himself to Slain "this is my love Deedlit." She smiled in greeting and Slayn nodded politely in reply.

"I was wondering if you would tell me about these enchantments I could sense on your gear, they do not feel like enchantments I am familiar with." Xapferey nodded and replied.

"A mage then? Well my profession is runecrafting, and it is much like enchanting; I inscribe the runes then charge them with magic, sometimes it takes days or even weeks to complete depending on the runes I choose."

"Sounds quite impressive, what drawbacks do these runes have?"

"Well if improperly written, the enchantments can either be warped or blow up in your face rather spectacularly." Xapferey said wryly.

"Yes your eyebrows finally grew back." Deedlit said teasingly making Xapferey roll his eyes.

"Ugh, not quite true, I avoided the majority of the explosion and was slightly singed." Slayn's eyebrows rose but a slight smile appeared at both the comments and the love the two shared. "But certain armor can only handle a certain amount of runic combinations."

"Runic combinations?" Slain asked, not quite understanding what Xapferey meant.

"Runic combinations are words or even sentences, runes strung together for a more powerful enchantment, but also in some ways more limited because the runes act like words in a sentence, you cannot change one without changing the meaning of the sentence." Slayn nodded in understanding.

"So the runes are they resistant to damage? Would destroying the items cause a backlash of sorts?"

"In order of your questions, yes and no and possibly." Xapferey said before he elaborated. "Runes are resistant to damage in the case of increasing the durability of an item. Take Deedlit's leather armor for example, I runecrafted it, after experimentation on other parts of leather. And I can guarantee that it offers the same level of protection as your young friend… Parn's armor." Slayn was rather impressed at this statement.

"The armor remains leather then?" Xapferey nodded "Could plate armor grant the mobility of leather armor with these runes?" Xapferey thought for a moment and nodded.

"With the right runes, yes."

"As for the backlash what could be expected? An explosion? Or something else?"

"It would depend on the situations, in the earlier case that Deedlit was teasing me about, I was inscribing some explosive runes as part of an experiment and well I sneezed at an inopportune moment and I jumped away just as the runes overloaded." Deedlit stood up

"I'll leave you two mages to talk, I'll go ask Nethalus for some stories of your youth." She said patting Xap's shoulder lovingly.

"Nethalus?" Slayn asked Xapferey.

"My brother in all but blood." Xapferey replied nodding towards the man Deedlit was now talking to and Slayn nodded in understanding.

"Could runes be used to augment a spellcaster's power? Boosting the strength of the spells cast?"

"Theoretically, but those types of runes are beyond my current power and expertise currently."

"I suppose every magic has limits, I could sense your potential but your power seems to from within rather than from the ley-lines of Lodoss, would you mind sharing."

"Not at all, my magic comes from within, I have a magical core, and much like a muscle, the more I use it, the more powerful I get. Runecrafting however burns through my reserves like you wouldn't believe. But I can also make my spells more powerful or weaker as I desire."

"But runecrafting is a constant drain? You cannot control how much is required for empowering the runes?"

"I can control how much I put in at a time, but the more complicated the runic structures, the more energy it takes to gain the proper effect."

"Are you able to sense how much energy a rune or runic structure will absorb to function properly? What I mean is how accurate does the empowering have to be for the runes to function correctly? What is the margin for error?"

"Runes can and will absorb up to a certain point safely, which will cause them to work normally, others can absorb extra which means they will fulfill their function better but it is risky as well because if the runic structure breaks, it could cause the backlash. As for charging the runes, I would say for runes alone, less than one in 100 runes would be dangerous. As for runic structures I would say I would make 1 mistake for every 6 or 7 runes, but not a hazardous mistake. Anything more complicated like the runic formations would be one hazardous mistake for every 5 runes. Bear in mind I am rather new to this profession, and have only been practicing for half a year."

"Well aside from what you told me I have no experience with said profession, so I cannot claim an accurate judgment of progress, although I would be interested in learning such a profession in time."

"And I would be happy to share what I know, my people have a saying which I'm not sure exists here as well but, two heads are better than one." Slayn nodded with a smile, understanding what Xapferey meant and the two continued talking for a few hours.

**Pagebreak**

A few hours Later Parn came back down with Etoh, Parn was in a simple black tunic with short sleeves and hunched over a mug of water while groaning. Nethalus had been discussing some minor healing techniques with Etoh after introducing himself as Xapferey's friend. The fact that Xapferey was still discussing magic with Slayn made it easier for Etoh to accept and discuss with Nethalus who was a Favored Soul (The sorcerer version of a Cleric).

The group however broke for the night and rejoined each other during the day with Parn looking much better, having had a proper chance to sleep off his hangover. Slayn offered to have Xapferey's party join with thiers, being a skilled mage himself, Slayn could see the value of having another in the party… provided Xapferey was willing to join them.

Xapferey wanted to go but he had to convince Deedlit first, since Nethalus wanted to join Slayn's party as well and Pirotess would be with him. Another reason Xapferey wanted to be on the move was that Abathur was getting restless, and for something like a Zergling, that was practically impossible.

Surprisingly it was Nethalus who had convinced Deedlit, as a divine spellcaster Nethalus was mildly sensitive to the flows of fate and explained such to Deedlit that they should join up with Slayn. As they were making preparations a person came running in and shouted

"Something… Something terrible has happened! Kanon… *gasp* Kanon has been destroyed! Emperor Beld of Marmo has invaded Lodoss."

"Wha…WHAT?" Parn roared in shock, only to clutch his head.

"This means a war, and a big one at that." Slayn commented.

"Here, let's make our final preparations and head to Valis, the Valisians would most likely fight first, if we move quickly enough we can get there before the border is closed." Slayn nodded to Xapferey's comment, it was the most sensible idea at the moment, even if the Allanians would join the fight, it was better idea to move to a guaranteed armed reaction rather than a possible one.

"Let's hurry, we leave in half an hour, an hour at most if we're lucky we'll make it to the border and cross in a few days." Xapferey said to the group and they departed to their various tasks to get ready.

A/N Done and done, almost 4k words, not bad. Next chapter more interactions between the two groups and Slayn meets Abathur and learns about familiars and their abilities.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Changed my mind and put Woodchuck back where they meet in the anime.

Disclaimer: Aside from XAS and Xapferey I own nothing, Abathur is owned by Blizzard Entertainment (I cannot own Nethalus as slavery is illegal last I checked and I have his permission to write him in).

Chapter 4: Of Myce and Men

The group of 8 left the city quickly; already guards were beginning to watch the gates thoroughly but the group managed to avoid many questions but Xapferey guided the group to where Abathur was burrowed.

"Now Slayn, as you know my magic is different than yours, but part of my magic gives me an empathic link with another creature, a familiar. Familiars can be one of any creature, and the one I summoned looks quite… dangerous and unusual… Ahem Abathur." He called and the Zergling popped out of the ground and pounced on its master screeching playfully and licking his face. "ACK Abathur, off, yes, yes I'm happy to see you too, now off." Xapferey pushed away the happily chittering Zergling while Slayn studied the Zergling.

"What is this creature?"

"A creature from a race known as the Zerg. Zerglings are the scouts and fast runners, also the first Zerg to join a fight. Zerglings normally spawn in twos or threes for a special type. Abathur here is a Raptor strain, which means he can leap up and down cliffs with ease due to those wings of his but he does not have enough lift to fly."

"Ah, well he seems like an impressive fighter with all those talons." Slayn commented as they walked. The group walked for several hours before deciding to take a break near a stream, while Slayn read his spellbook, Etoh sat down near Slayn and Nethalus stood with Pirotess while Deedlit and Xapferey sat on either side of Abathur who lay on the grass.

Ghim and Parn were sparring, helping the young man get better with his sword. Parn was yelling and growling as he clashed with Ghim. Ghim parried Parn's blows before knocking him back after he locked weapons and shoved.

"Pathetic, you can hardly even handle a sword." The group then watched as Parn charged recklessly and Ghim hammered the flat of his axe into Parn, sending the boy tumbling ass over heels to the ground in a disheveled heap.

"WHA?" Etoh said in shock

Xapferey facepalmed, Nethalus groaned and Abathur pitched backwards limbs akimbo and twitching rather comically in the air. Both Xapferey and Nethalus stared.

"Did he really just face-fault?"

"Yes he did… smartass Zergling." Xapferey growled at the still twitching creature. "Ugh I can't watch this anymore." Xapferey got up and walked to Parn and sighed. "Take a break Ghim, I got this. Now Parn, you don't lack in physical strength, which is good, but your technique is well… atrocious." Parn stared at him still somewhat annoyed.

"What makes you such an expert." Parn half-demanded, to which Xapferey pursed his lips in mock thought.

"Hmm, maybe for the fact my parents had me formally trained for 22 years. I was ridiculously mature as a child and my parents were well off so they wanted me able to protect myself as much as possible." Parn acquiesced somewhat.

"What then?"

"Parn you have potential, but right now you lack the necessary experience to charge like that. When you do you leave a great gaping hole in your defenses that anyone with enough skill can exploit. Even I don't charge like that unless I have to."

"Cause you're a defensive stylist." Nethalus called Parn looked a little confused at what Nethalus meant before getting the gist.

"I prefer to let my opponent(s) wear themselves out on my defenses, wearing them down until they give me the opening I need. Not that I don't have offensive styles, I started with a defensive style and kept it going." Parn nodded.

"What would you suggest I do then?"

"Advance cautiously, spar with me for awhile let me show you." Xapferey said as he drew his sword and settled in a ready position. Parn advanced as advised and attacked with a powerful overhand chop, which Xapferey sidestepped. Xapferey parried aside Parn's next attack and watched as the boy set up a flurry of blows in an attempt to pierce Xapferey's defenses, Xapferey parried the first, stepped into the second and caught Parn in a sword lock which Xap broke and sent Parn's blade to the ground. Xapferey stepped back and said, "Good, now pick it up and let's go again."

Parn nodded and picked his sword back up and stepped forwards to attack, Xapferey parried a gut shot aside, and then a blow aimed for his shoulders and another for his legs. Xapferey surprised Parn by switching to his left hand and he continued in his defensive style called Blade Wall. He caught the blade on his own twisted his, sending the tip of Parn's blade to the floor before resting the tip of his blade on his throat and then stepping back. "Good, again."

This time Xapferey fought back offensively, his blade clashed against Parn and shoved him back, Xapferey was obviously holding back against the boy at least half his age. Xapferey was fond of rapid and usually unpredictable attacks, the moves in staccato bursts, and when Xapferey got into it, his blade seemed like there were several moving at once. But for Parn, Xapferey just tested him slowly, not going beyond Parn's estimated skill level.

Xapferey nodded after he had finished and stepped back and went to refill his water bottle. Unnoticed by him, Deedlit had perched herself in a branch above him and was watching him quietly. After filling his bottle, he removed his armor and shirt then dunked his head under the water. Deedlit had to admire the toned muscles, the slowly growing patches of gold scales and hard skin of a Dragon…

'Wait, what?' Deedlit thought to herself as she looked as close as she could. She hopped down silently and moved towards Xapferey, her eyes locked on the patches of gold skin and scales. As she moved Xapferey turned and for the first time she noticed and properly registered that his features were changing. His eyes had changed from a golden-brown to gold irises and the gold was creeping into the pupil slowly, "Xapferey what is happening to you?" She demanded, half in curiosity the other half worry.

"Umm… well… Legends that speak of Dragons and magic as if they were every day, based on the evidence before me I have to admit there was more…" Deedlit just put a finger to his lips, silencing his babbling gently.

"Xapferey, I understand, you went with what you thought was the truth, and all legends have some truth to them, now tell me what's happening to you?" Xapferey sighed in relief and explained.

"There was some Dragon in my ancestry it seems, these Dragon types are shapeshifters and can take a humanoid form and have children with Human or others. I am calling it forth again so when I am done I will be in essence a half-Dragon." Deedlit's eyebrows rose that had not been an answer she had expected. "So, would this affect what?"

"Well my love, a half-Dragon is not my full intention," Xapferey sighed before continuing, "Deedlit, I intend to undergo a special ritual, one which will make me become a full Dragon like one of my ancestors."

"What would this mean for us?" Deedlit pressed.

"It would mean that I would live as long as a High Elf naturally, I would be immortal, like you." Deedlit was somewhat flabbergasted, but the answer excited and relieved her. Like how Xapferey loved her, she had grown close and fond of him, now she easily admitted she loved him. She knew he was too honorable to string her along, but she also knew she would outlive him, until this fact came along.

"Truly Xapferey?" Deedlit asked at his smile and nod she hugged him when a scent caught his nose and put him on some alert.

"I smell a Dark Elf, and Kobolds… I think." Xapferey broke away from Deedlit's hug to grab his tunic, padding and armor. He had just pulled on all his gear again when the pack of kobolds entered the clearing just in front of them. "Oh joy… here we go." He muttered as he drew his sword as Deedlit drew her rapier and stepped beside him.

A couple kobolds attacked Xapferey but he out maneuvered them, before he could finish them, another two jumped forward. Then there was a clash of metal and the crack of splitting wood as Deedlit parried two throwing knives.

"A Dark Elf," Deedlit said in surprise as she jumped into the tree after the evil Elf. "You handle the kobolds, I'll handle the Dark Elf." Xapferey rolled his eyes, sending him to deal with kobolds was like sending a nuke to kill a fly. The Kobods swarmed him in groups, reacting fast enough that even a grandmaster like Xapferey was having trouble as he lapsed into his full defensive form dodging and parrying all their efforts.

In the meantime Deedlit had lost sight of the Dark Elf and looked down to see Xapferey madly defending himself against the large group of Kobolds.

"Rats." Deedlit gasped as she noticed the Dark Elf appear in front of her and flick another throwing knife at her. Thankfully the knife just grazed Deedlit's arm causing her to yelp lightly in pain; Deedlit then flitted down next to Xapferey and grimaced.

"He's a tough one… I hate saying this but if we don't run away now, we're probably dead," Xapferey nodded curtly at her and the Dark Elf appeared in front of them. "No choice now." Then a staff slammed into the ground in front of them, thrown from behind.

"Xapferey, Deedlit," Etoh shouted as the rest of the group ran up, only Xapferey really noticed the foul look the Dark Elf gave the disguised Pirotess, obviously recognizing her despite her disguise.

"What are you playing with here?" Chim demanded as he moved to the head of the group by Xapferey and Deedlit.

"I suppose this looks like play to a dwarf?" Deedlit asked rhetorically.

"Well I guess Kobolds make pretty lousy playmates," Ghim retorted.

The Dark elf noticed something and turned his head before he gestured to the kobolds.

"Away," he barked and he faded while the kobolds fled. Xapferey sighed as he noticed Allanian soldier around them

"Figure now the military shows up and they'll probably get the wrong idea," he muttered sarcastically as he ignored Parn's elated remarks. Xapferey's sarcasm was quite accurate considering the group was arrested and taken to the fort's dungeons not long afterwards.

Their gear was out of reach, and Abathur had been chained to the wall, the Zergling's claws though snapped the chains easily. With claws that could rend Protoss psionic energy shields and Terran neosteel, simple iron chains offered less resistance than paper. Parn in the meantime was howling his protests to the guard who replied while climbing the stairs.

"Tell it to the captain when he gets back from Allan."

"Save your breath," another voice piped up from behind them "scream all you want, but if the captain's not here it won't do you any good."

"Hey who are you?" Parn asked.

"Looks like a small time robber," Ghim added.

"Looks are about equal down here," he answered. Xapferey and to a lesser degree Nethalus knew it was Woodchuck.

"Don't assume we're like you," Deedlit replied primly as he rolled over to see the speaker.

"Well well, a lovely little elf wench, how very cute," to this Abathur snarled and advanced on the hapless thief while Deedlit glared though she smirked at the rather girlish yelp from the thief as the Zergling began growling and advancing on him.

"Abathur, HEEL, SIT," Xapferey barked, the Zergling glared at the thief warningly before obeying. "I must apologize for Abathur, he's very protective of my love."

Woodchuck pushed himself as far into the corner away from the beast as he could. While Slayn spoke to their group, a slight smile on his face.

"Easy, I'm certain when the captain comes back he'll see this was all a big mistake."

Time passed for the group as Woodchuck introduced himself to the group and they began talking. Rather Parn began talking to Wood, Nethalus was healing Deedlit's wound as she sat on the straw covered floor beside Xapferey. Slayn was busy meditating; Ghim and Pirotess were napping while Etoh watched Nethalus' usage of his powers.

"I was building my own little war chest and was heading to another kingdom, Falis wasn't looking out for me this time... Wait where is it?" Wood asked as he patted the straw beside him before he noticed Abathur had something in his mouth and put it in front of Xapferey while chittering excitedly.

"Wha?" Was all Xapferey could say as he looked at his mother's bracelet that he sold long ago before he laughed in shock "Bahamut prevails in all forms," he murmured so quietly almost Deedlit didn't hear him. "Where did you get this Woodchuck?" 

"I found that, some merchant had been robbed by Marmo, I managed to find it under a rock and kept it hidden from the guards… why?"

"I sold this long ago when I came to Lodoss, I had no money and I had to make some even if it meant selling my mother's favorite bracelet," Xap pulled out a photograph, of him and his parents, the bracelet quite identifiable on his mother's wrist. "Thank you for returning this to me, it's all I really have left of my parents after their passing," Wood grunted but acquiesced ownership in the face of proof, that and his fear of the Zergling. "Deedlit, my mother wanted me to give this to the woman who has my heart," he whispered to her making her smile and she offered her arm for him to put it on, and she replaced her bracer comfortably over it.

"Thank you Xapferey," she replied quietly, her emerald eyes shining with happiness. A few minutes later a foul odor caught Xapferey's attention and he turned to glare at Nethalus who was smoking in the corner.

"Neth put that damn thing out now, I won't have you sucking on a cancer stick when we're in an enclosed place," Nethalus just gave Xapferey a sour look but obeyed and extinguished his cigarette.

Not long afterwards Wood explained he was headed for Valis due to the general weak fighters in Allan and Kannon's armies. A few moments later footsteps were heard as the captain came down the stairs to the gate of the dungeons and stared at the group looking back at him.

"Are these the spies?"

"Aye," another guard replied.

"We're not spies, just innocent travelers in the wrong place at the wrong time," Xapferey protested.

"Hmmph…light," he gasped as suspicison dissolved into shock as he stared at Etoh "you _Lauma adonia moil de Pharis," _Etoh smiled in pleased surprise and replied.

"_Moiros lahm,"_ Etoh answered in the same language with a respectful bow of his head. Xapferey patted Etoh on the shoulder as the captain Jebra apologized and let everyone but for Wood out. A barracks was quickly cleared, with a small room meant for a military scribe made ready for Deedlit.

About half an hour later the group was with Jebra (after he had introduced himself) in his office where they were sharing a meal.

"I wish that there was more I could do to make up for your ill-treatment. There have been a matter of disturbances lately, and my men are a bit jumpy... If I had been able to return sooner, this could have all been avoided."

"Captain Jebra please we're sincerely grateful for your understanding."

"Woodchuck had explained the troubles with the Marmo especially after news of Kannon," Xapferey said.

"Woodchuck? Oh you mean that petty thief in the dungeon… so what did he tell you?"

"That Marmo armies are heading towards us."

"True Kannon is a lost cause."

"And Allania?" Parn asked.

"We are still waiting final word from King Kadomos and his chief vassals."

"Another war," Etoh said sadly when a voice called out through the open window.

"Captain Jebra, ready for inspection sir."

"Have the men wait, I'm coming, won't you join me? Sadly we don't have much in the ways of entertainment here."

The group went down to the main courtyard after graciously accepting and watched two soldiers in the centre of a ring of comrades sparring. Xapferey eyed them critically, they were decent soldiers overall, trained to fight in a group whereas Xapferey was used to fighting either in small duels or arenas where it turned into a free-for-all on rare occasions. They all had excellent promise and were doing their best to rely mainly on their shields for defense. On the downside, their movements were occasionally choppy, the motions between shield and sword lacked coordination.

"A fine group," Jebra said eyeing his men proudly "my men gathered here every night to sharpen their fighting skills."

"I always believed Allanian men prized their scholarship above all else. But somehow these men seem different," Slain replied.

"The men who come here are different, they have too much strength to fit into regular Allanian society."

"Keeping all your violent men in one place hm?" Deedit quipped causing Xapferey to groan quietly and Etoh to say her name quietly in warning.

"Ha, there's no need to apologize," Jebra eyed Xapferey, the man was easily a few inches taller than him and he could see Xapferey watching his men with an appraising and skilled eye. "Care to have a bout Xapferey?" Xapferey pulled out a similar blade to his normal one, but it was not runecrafted and dulled for sparring.

"No shield?" Jebra asked as Xapferey entered the ring ahead of him.

"It'll only slow me down."

Xapferey shifted into his opening stance, hilt held in both hands and the blade in a drop parry position. Jebra attacked and was parried aside, the captain struck out again, driving Xapferey around the circle but never scoring a hit. Xapferey finally struck back, a high overhand powerful chop known as the "falling avalanche" technique and it made Jebra wince at the power behind the blow. Xapferey then lunged forwards and unleashed a rapid barrage of attacks that Jebra managed to parry, as the fight went on, the blows were coming from increasingly random angles and to Jebra it almost seemed like there were three blades attacking at once.

The captain was harly able to get in a counterblow before a vicious sword lock tore the blade from his grasp and he was floored by an ankle sweep. Xapferey stood over him with his blade at Jebra's throat before he stepped back when the captain laughed joyfully.

"Gods above that was terrifying, what do you call that style of fighting?"

"It's called the Ferocity form, it's very emotionally and physically draining to try and master."

"Indeed, Allania needs strong men like you Xapferey, what say you join with us? I could see you becoming great among Allanian soldiers," Xapferey smiled gently but shook his head.

"I greatly appreciate the offer but I'm not ready to settle down quite yet," Jebra nodded in understanding and they moved to let a few new groups take the ring.

A few hours later Xapferey was discussing with Woodchuck down in the dungeon about the invasion, unlike Parn, Xapferey had his full gear on him because he knew Fortress Myce would be attacked at any time. His G11 was loaded and a round chambered, the safety was on though to prevent any incidents. Xapferey was mulling why an attack force would be so far north and was trying to reconcile the _Grey Witch_ books with the anime when Wood's voice cut into Xap's thoughts.

"Hey what say you get me out of here? No more stealing I promise."

"I'll think about it," Xapferey replied, then he froze, the attack was due any moment and he sensed Karla (at lease he strongly suspected it was Karla considering the locus of power was VERY strong).

BOOOM

'Great…'

"Hey let me out of here," Xapferey thought for a moment before getting his Zergling to break the lock.

"Stay here."

"The hell I will."

"Listen to those booms, that means pissed off spellcaster, Slayn is not powerful enough to make that kind of explosion, I might be able to pull it off being a combat caster but not as often. Certainly not with such ease, and unless you want to make yourself a target stay here."

"Fine."

Xapferey raced off to find the courtyard a mess. There were a few dead bodies around and three kobolds trying to remove the crossbar from the gate. Xapferey drew his pistol and shot at them as he ran, the hollow point rounds mushroomed inside and left rather gory messes of the kobolds' chests.

As Xapferey headed for the gate, the Dark Elf appeared in front of him and copped supersonic lead to the head.

A guard came rushing over a moment later and gulped slightly before getting control of himself.

"What happened?"

"Kobolds were trying to open the gate, I shot them, then shot the Dark Elf as he appeared to try and stop me. Where's Captain Jebra?"

"Over there, he's somewhat injured though," Xapferey over and saw the captain approaching, with a scowl on his face as he was followed by Parn and the others at that moment another fireball detonated on the wall blasting stone about. Jebra glowered and turned to the group.

"Can any of you do anything about that blasted Sorcerer?" Slayn laughed and it was not from amusement.

"No, this sorcerer is more powerful than the three of us here, you'd be sending us to our deaths."

"I have an idea, stand back," Xapferey said and drew his sword "I can buy you time captain but I'm not sure how useful I'll be after I pull it off," Xapferey immediately began drawing runes on the ground rapidly, he gave them a light energy charge but he do not treat them as proper runes. **"Si naushind arcaniss ihk vi tairais," **he roared, the runes focused and amplified the spell. The energy field affected a whole mile around the fort, the energy field prevented magic from being used at all.

Deedlit, Slayn, Etoh, Nethalus and Pirotess gasped as they felt their connection to their god, powers or elemental spirits fade into nothingness. Xapferey tipped backwards and crashed on the ground having completely depleted his mana reserves from that stunt. 

"Xapferey," Deedlit yelled in shock as the group ran to help him after he had fallen over. The fireballs were no longer coming, and the captain was quite happy that his fortress was no longer being blown up around him. Xapferey regained consciousness a few minutes later, to notice the glares of both his High Elf lover and friend.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" Deedlit screamed at him.

"Yes Xapferey I may not have my connection to magic after what you did, but I can tell that your spell cost you a great deal of energy. You must understand that using magic to such a great extent could result in your death."

"True, but my spell prevented magic from working in this region for a time and we better use that time."

"Nethalus and I managed to save one of your men, but the rest need healing better that we can offer; and our magical healing is sadly no longer an option." Etoh said mournfully. Jebra nodded, it was an unfortunate sacrifice but lack of enemy spells destroying the fort was a welcome benefit. Jebra then sighed as he looked around.

"I'm afraid or we can give them now is rest, we have a responsibility to protect the fort," Xapferey just groaned quietly, the medieval mindset of these guys were going to get them all killed. Xapferey asked if he could be shown a lookout post, preferably something that oversaw the main gate.

"Xapferey you ok?" Nethalus asked giving his friend a look.

"I'm fine, little tired, I'm going to be getting a good night sleep tonight that's for sure…"

"Provided everything goes according to plan hm?"

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."

"Take these then," Nethalus passed Xapferey a bandolier of grenades, Xap was both elated and nervous at handling a whole platoon's worth of explosives as he followed Jebra. Once on the post the two glared out into the night. Despite his enhanced eyes Xapferey could not see any possible targets so he clicked his G11 to 3-round burst and made sure Jebra was covering his ears and fired out. The muzzle flashed and a loud bellow of agony resulted from the gunshots.

Xapferey turned to the awed and hard faced captain and spoke again.

"You'd probably know better than me, what did that sound like? How many enemies you think it would take to sound like that?" Xapferey gestured out to the yells, roars and barks.

"A lot, more than I would care to think about especially with that sorcerer out there. How long do you think your… spell will last?"

"I don't know, something I came up with, it was a hunch that thankfully paid off… How many would you say?"

"*Sigh* about 200 or more." Jebra said.

"How many soldiers do you have here?"

"All told 55 with 10 more dead and another 8 injured."

"Joy… about 4 or 5 to 1… now what?"

"My orders are to protect the fort… to the death," Xapferey grabbed Jebra's shoulder to stop and pulled the captain to look at him.

"Let me get this straight you're going to send me for a country that won't even with grant you the dignity fighting back in your name?"

"There's is a treaty among all the nations that if one is attacked by Marmo the others will respond to aid the beleaguered kingdom, and we will be viewed as the first casualties of this war." Xapferey laughed, it was all he could do. Jebra stared at Xapferey feeling utterly perplexed.

Slayn and Woodchuck gone over how much Allania does not value its military. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your king won't do anything unless he can squirm out of it am I right?" The look on Jebra's face was all Xapferey needed. "Let me explain one of the conflicts my people went through, it was called the first World War it was not called back for posterity, but because the entire world without war for the most part."

Xapferey paused to let that sink in; Jebra could see Xapferey was telling the truth through his eyes. What people, what kind of war would involve so many? Jebra wondered before Xapferey continued

"And a terrible man came to power about 60 years before my birth, because the world at large wanted to avoid such another conflict and attempted to pacify and appease this man, but it failed and an even greater conflict resulted. You see, your king will just try to pacify Marmo, he will try to negotiate if he can, you won't be the first casualties you'll just be collateral damage like so many civilians were."

"What would you have me do?"

"We've got time, that gate will hold for awhile and if you let me, I'll make sure that we stand a chance of holding this fort and make it out of this alive," Jebra sighed but nodded.

"I'll call my aide de camp and hear your plan before I make any final decision." Xapferey nodded and followed Jebra. After the captain heard Xapferey's plan, the captain agreed that Xapferey would take charge, the plan was actually quite sound. "MEN, GROUP IN THE COURTYARD AFTER ARMING FOR BATTLE, YOU ARE NOW UNDER THE COMMAND OF XAPFEREY MANAWEAVER."

"Thank you captain.""

"Thank me by getting us out of this alive. About 15 minutes later, the full garrison came running for instructions, all armed with a variety of weapons.

"All right, I need 10 bowmen to follow Nethalus above the gates, your jobs are to thin the oncoming herd as much as you can. Neth take my G11 and these 9 extra mags, you'll have 597 rounds all told."

"Xapferey you're better than me with the G11."

"True, but odds are you'll hit something even if you shoot blindly, now I'll need your shotgun in exchange," Nethalus nodded and the two swapped firearms. "Now I need two groups of 5 spearmen beside the gate, don't bother trying to close, just keep them close and give them a gauntlet to run. Now I need 10 men with pikes to group behind the remaining swordsmen, your jobs are to blunt the rush for the swordsmen. Slayn go get woodchuck from the dungeon, no offence, but you probably won't be able to help much without your powers," Slayn smiled grimly in agreement but left after Xap instructed Abathur to protect him.

Ghim, Wood and Jebra were positioned off to the side in an attempt to protect the swordsmen from being flanked from the right. Parn, Deedlit and Xapferey were off to the left with Abathur and Slayn near the entrance to the keep away from the fighting. Woodchuck agreed to assist in the defense on the condition that he was released afterwards.

"All right you lot, you have your orders and that gate is about to go… ARE YOU WAITING FOR AN INVITATION? MOVE LIKE YOU HAVE A PURPOSE," Xapferey roared and the men jumped into action and ran to their stations. Turning he saw shocked looks from Ghim and Parn.

"Lad where did you do before you joined with us? Were you a soldier?"

"No, my father was, he was a general in charge of many men and he made sure I understood armies throughout our history," Ghim nodded and he trudged off to his position.

Xapferey then heard the barking of his assault rifle and the cracking of the bar on the gates and he cringed as he noticed the bar had splintered somewhat due to one of his gunshots despite the hollow points. Xapferey signaled the spearmen to be ready the moment the gates were opened and chambered a shell. The gates opened a couple of minutes later as the crossbar split and collapsed on the ground.

'Ai Bahamut, great god of metallic dragons, the anime is NOTHING like real life,' Xapferey groaned mentally, but he lifted the shotgun and sighted the head of an Ogre and fired. The Ogre jerked backwards missing the back of its head from the buckshot.

"Spearmen," Xapferey yelled and two ranks of 5 spearmen began chipping away at the flanks forcing the rush into the forces arrayed in front of them. The line of pikemen slowed the rush enough that the line was not steamrolled but it was still a hard fight for them.

The booms of the shotgun caused Deedlit to wince, both at the noise and at the gruesome results of the scattergun's effects but she fought with the expected grace and speed of an Elf. The rush also forced Xapferey to sling the shotgun, not having had a chance to reload. It was a hard battle, between the two modern weapons, the bowmen above the gate volleying into the night, the spears chipping at the flanks, the pikes slowing the rush and the main force battling the enemy.

None of the Allanian troops has died though injuries were rife throughout the garrison, and Xapferey noticed a break in the enemy and drove forwards in a counterattack. The rush pushed the enemy back and broke their morale driving them out of the gates. About 5 minutes out of the fortress Xapferey called a halt.

"Enough, they're beaten for now," as Xapferey stared out he noticed two figures in the distance. His better night vision enabled him to see the features of the two. Karla the Grey Witch and Ashram the Black Knight, captain of the royal guard of Marmo. Ashram raised his unsheathed sword and galloped away.

Xapferey sighed, he was utterly exhausted and as good as his skills were, he would want to test himself against Ashram when better rested. As for Karla, she was staring hard at Xapferey before she disappeared in a puff of magic signaling that she was either out of range of his spell or it had ended.

Xapferey staggered, the last of the adrenaline was gone from his system and so went the last of his energy and he crumpled as the world went dark around him.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing beyond Xapferey Manaweaver.

Chapter 5: Grey, Black and Gold

_6 hours after the battle of Fort Myce _

The first thing Xapferey noticed was hushed voices as he awoke, his first thought was that he passed out in his home before his brain caught up to him with the force of a supernova.

Lodoss. Michael… no… Nethalus and Pirotess… Deedlit, the two falling in love, runecrafting… magic… battle of Fort Myce.

"Is he alright?" Deedlit asked in a worried tone, she had nearly had a heart attack seeing him collapse like that; she thought Xapferey had been seriously injured.

"I'm certain he will be," Slayn said quietly "his spell drained all his energy and only through sheer willpower did he find the energy to fight like that in the battle. Despite the gruesome and effective results of his weapon, why would he not use it more?"

"Because it requires ammunition to use, much like any bow or crossbow," Nethalus replied "and it also takes time to reload, the idiot was right… a shotgun is only reliably accurate up to 15 feet," Nethalus interjected. Xapferey rolled his eyes behind his eyelids; he knew he was probably going to be read the riot act.

"Is he awake?" Deedlit asked the others.

"I am now," Xapferey replied as he opened his eyes only to get glomped by a worried High Elf "Ooof."

"Never do that again you idiot, I was so worried when you collapsed like that, I thought you were about to die."

"I'm sorry for worrying you."

"You ever do that again…" A whip cracking noise interrupted the two and they turned to see Nethalus holding something, which Xap recognized as his iPhone 5S.

"Sorry I just had to do that," Xapferey slowly got out of bed and raised himself to his full height.

"Nethalus scram, trying to have a touching moment here," Xapferey said his voice tinged with menace "And give me my phone back too."

Nethalus nodded putting the electronic device nearby along with a Xapferey's school backpack and left rather hastily, making Xapferey roll his eyes playfully at his old friend. Deedlit was still giving him a hard stare, her eyes chips of jade as her body language conveyed worry and love.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you and I shouldn't be so reckless."

"Nethalus told me several times you've worked yourself to the point of collapse so I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. Just promise me you'll try to avoid a similar situation in the future… please Xapferey."

"I'll try my love, that I do promise you," Xapferey got out of the cot and stretched, wincing as his back popped in a couple places a moment later a knock on the door caught their attention. "Come in," Xapferey called and Jebra entered. "What's the situation captain?"

"To be blunt the fortress is breached in several areas. It can be repaired but it would take years to fix properly so I wanted to hear your advice on what we should do."

"Why me? You're the one in charge of these men."

"True, but you led the defense of the fortress, you're the one who led us to victory."

"Fair enough, I would say go to Roid in Valis, head northwest to the temple of Pharis… Nethalus and Etoh are only two men and cannot give your troops the healing they need."

"And if my superiors ask for my reasoning for such a move?"

"You are the border guard, isn't obvious you would be the first sent to aid your allies in the event of an attack from Marmo?"

"That's a good answer, it has holes as would be expected in a soldier's answer," Jebra stopped for a moment and stared at Xapferey thoughtfully "You're not coming with us though correct?"

"No, don't ask me why, but our group aside from Etoh and Nethalus need to cross the Forest of no Return, with Deedlit with us we should make it through fine."

"Very well," Jebra said with a sigh, thinking that Xapferey's presence would have been very good for the morale of his troops.

"Can you send Nethalus here, he has something of mine."

"Certainly," Jebra left to relay instructions and orders for the move and Nethalus came back.

"You wanted something Xap?"

"My G11 please, you can have your shotgun back."

"Here, so what do you want me to do?"

"Go with Jebra, he'll need your help, he'll explain your side of the plan."

"Splitting up again are we?"

"It's all part of the plan," Xapferey replied and Nethalus pulled Xapferey into a manly hug and left and Xapferey turned back to Deedlit who had been quiet the whole time.

"The Forest of no Return?"

"Yes, we need to get to Roid quickly and the forest is the fastest way … I trust you can lead us through safely," Deedlit gave Xapferey a mock glare but it failed a moment later as she stepped into his arms. The next day the group broke apart an went south leaving Pirotess, Nethalus and Etoh with Jebra's group as they traveled through the mostly uninhabited southern parts of Allania.

The group crossed the town that Xapferey recognized as the one he had passed through on his way north to Allan. The group spent the night at the village and collected provisions; news of Marmo's advance had not reached the little village yet so the group was able to move on quickly without questions, especially making sure Abathur skirted the village to join them across the river.

An hour after the river, the group stopped to take a breather when they noticed a patch of burnt ground, the ground was healing slowly but there was a magical signature Deedlit and Slayn knew well: Xapferey's, they quickly realized this was where Xapferey had arrived on Lodoss, although Deedlit had been told Xapferey's story and that he had come from another world against his will, Slayn had not and the mage was staring at Xapferey quizzically.

Xapferey sighed and leaned down to examine the ground, his eyes enchanted with a _Detect Magic_ spell as he examined the magical signatures to see if there was a way to get home. Slayn sat down next to Xapferey and watched as Xapferey tried a few spells before he spoke in a low voice.

"Care to explain this Xapferey?"

"I am not from or native to Lodoss Slayn, much less this world, I suppose you could call me a plainswalker, it's not something I like admitting."

"Deedlit knows then?"

"Yes, she's known for some time, I was trying to see if I could find a way back."

"So you could return to your old life?"

"No, so I could pick up a few things and make peace with it… Slayn look at me, I'm a sorcerer, and magic back home is not as prevalent as it is here, besides I have a life here, one that home could not match," Slayn nodded with a small smile though he was quite curious about what Xapferey's homeland was like.

After a couple hours break the group continued down the path and Slayn asked about their chosen route.

"Are you sure about that path? You are heading straight into the Forest of No Return," Ghim grunted but said nothing further.

"Hey, hey, hey, wait just a minute… we're not going in there are we?" Wood whined "Forget it, I'm not going into that forest, have you heard of anyone coming out?"

"Yes I have, she's about 5'5, long blond hair, delicate features characteristic of the Elf race, wears full leather armor, armed with a rapier and throwing knives. Does this person sound familiar to you Deedlit?" Xapferey asked with a playful smile, which caused Deedlit to giggle, Slayn had a slight smile, while Parn chuckled, Ghim grunted in mild amusement before they continued to the entry point of the forest.

Before the group entered Deedlit warned them to leave emotion behind metaphorically, but it was a serious warning, Xapferey was nearly blinded when he used _Detect magic._ Overwhelming auras of most of the magical schools resonated from the forest's magical defenses enough to make Xapferey whistle in admiration and gulp at the fact he was passing through those wards. Xapferey knew what was coming and grabbed the protesting Woodchuck and heaved him bodily into the portal.

"Keep calm and stay together, remember the wood reacts to strong emotions, stay calm and focused, there's so much illusion magic around here you need to be wary of… keep moving," Xapferey growled quietly at the thief before the group moved on, there was a moment of shock as the group felt more energy available to them. Deedlit explained that without the emotions normally correlated with adrenaline rushes such as anger didn't exist in that realm, the High Elf also warned them that they needed to be quick and Slayn agreed because time moved much more quickly in the forest they would all age rapidly and could die within the forest.

Parn stopped and stared off into the distance, but Xapferey gently pushed him on "It's an illusion, nothing more keep moving," Xapferey turned slightly and saw his parents waving to him and calling to him asking him to join them again. Xapferey shivered for a moment as he watched the illusion but managed to suppress his anguish and anger barely, having had finally come to terms with their deaths only recently.

Sadly though Xapferey's moment of weakness was enough and the forest lashed out in response, Ghim spun and broke the roots coming for Xapferey but more came and seized Ghim and dragged him away, Ghim soon began shouting at an illusion of his own but Xapferey telekinetically grabbed the group and with considerable mental and magical effort he pushed them all out of the forest.

Not long after the group took stock of the situation and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Ugh, I'm surprised we got through there alive," Wood said.

"Mm, do you know what Ghim was yelling about Slayn?" Xapferey asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but it seems his quest may be more difficult then I originally thought."

After caring for the semi-comatose Dwarf the group crowded around him and Parn asked what he though Ghim had seen.

"Mmph… It was Leylia."

"Who? No, it's ok, if you don't want to tell us… if you rather not we won't press," Xapferey said kindly.

"Please tell us dear friend," Slayn encouraged gently.

"You think so? After all he was the one who put us in danger there."

"Ghim didn't trigger the forest Deedlit… I did, he was protecting me" Xapferey admitted which caused Deedlit to break from her haughty look and stare at him in shock, Xapferey sighed and sat by the water, his shoulders shaking, not from laughter, but from sorrow and anger. Deedlit softened and sat rested her head on her love's shoulder, trying to offer him comfort.

"Xapferey," Deedlit whispered quietly wanting to understand what would make Xapferey so troubled. She hugged him and heard a quiet sob come from him… that scared her slightly but she was also cautious of asking him.

"I saw my parents Deed, I had finally buried them after so long , and you helped fill the hole in my heart my love, but it really hurt seeing them like that and knowing it was an illusion," off to the side the two could hear Ghim explaining his quest to the others but Deedlit focused on Xapferey again.

"How did they die?"

"I've shown you magical pictures of my world, you know was a car is."

"A horseless carriage that travels at speeds much greater than a horse, yes."

"Well they were coming home from a trip and well we have rules and machines that govern our roadways and types of licenses are required to be legally able to drive, well this man had a serious issue with alcohol as you can imagine what being impaired while driving in one of those could do," Deedlit's wince was answer enough for him, she could imagine gruesome results "This man had already been caught driving while heavily intoxicated with a suspended license once already, but he didn't learn until our legal system dealt with him."

"That… Grrmph if I ever see that fool I would…" Deedlit turned incoherent in her anger "what was his punishment?" She demanded

"A very long prison term, very long."

"Well that would have to do I suppose," A loud explosion in the distance caused Xapferey to look up and realized that Karla was nearby again and this time she was going after princess Fianna, the daughter of king Fahn of Valis.

The group rushed out of the woods and found a dying knight reaching out desperately after a carriage, "The prince..ss… save… Princess Fianna," The knight died at that moment and Parn jumped on the horse, then Slayn jumped on after and they chased after the carriage.

"Ugh can they never stay out of trouble?" Xapferey groaned "Si relgr ihk vi verth di arcaniss," a horse appeared at the sorcerer's command and Xapferey charged after them with Abathur keeping pace with Xapferey's horse easily. But Xapferey was smart and dispelled the horse and blinked behind the carriage and he heard Karla talking after she appeared in a powerful burst of lightning.

Xapferey could not see Parn but judging by the noises Parn had battled through Karla's holding spell and was moving towards her.

"Only a fool attacks without knowing who his enemy really is."

"I haven't," Xapferey sneered as he shoved her telekinetically sending her in an uncontrolled fall. Karla turned in surprise and stared at Xapferey.

"Impressive, it is not often someone so young surprises me, because I respect your courage, I reward you and your friends," Karla sent Fianna at Parn as Ghim ran up and began shouting at Karla, calling out for Leylia. Karla disappeared a few moments later, but Ghim was obviously upset and confused and Xapferey saw a opportunity to 'know' something about Karla without realizing he knew aspects of the future.

"Ghim, you claim that was Lelia… obviously something is wrong here, would you say that was in character for her?"

"No, that was Lelia, but she was different, she didn't even recognize me."

"I thought so, that circlet on her forehead was radiating powerful enchantment magics, I think that circlet is controlling her somehow."

"You can see magic?" Slayn asked in surprise, such a power had not been revealed to him in their earlier discussions "How would you go about such?"

"Try modifying a spell, granted it's easy for me but it can't hurt."

"It cannot hurt to attempt indeed, hmm… Almighty mana cast off your false garments and reveal your true form," Slayn smiled as his spell was successful and he became aware of the magical auras around him, he had to turn from the forest to avoid being blinded though. As magical auras became more apparent Slayn noticed that Xapferey was staring off and most of the blood had drained from his face.

Slayn ended the spell and turned to see a considerable amount of Marmo troops headed by Ashram marching towards them. Already the group was taking up defensive positions to guard the still sleeping princess from the Marmo.

"Get her out of here, none of you are a match for Ashram."

"And I suppose you are?" Deedlit snapped back at him.

"Don't get snippy with me love, but I have a few tricks I've not shown yet, now go."

"Are you sure? It would be highly dangerous to leave you here alone," Slayn offered cautiously.

"I'll be fine, trust me, I know what I'm doing," Slayn nodded in reluctant acquiescence as the group began pulling away as Xapferey walked to confront Ashram and the Marmo. Xapferey sighed quietly and walked towards Ashram who rode out to confront Xapferey and dismounted.

"Brave to face us alone, but also foolish" Ashram commented.

"We shall see," Xapferey said as Ashram drew his blade and Xapferey swept into his opening stance with his drawn sword. Xapferey stood in a strange stance, the sword in a high guard, the blade held horizontally with his offhand swept to the side and down with his body half twisted away from Ashram. The Black Knight cocked an eyebrow but advanced, the moment he got into sword range, Xapferey attacked.

Ashram parried aside a rapid and straight thrust to the heart; only just now did he realize his opponent had attacked and had defended on instinct. Xapferey sidestepped as Ashram forced his blade aside and riposted in a flat bladed blow to the head.

Having sidestepped the attempted stunning blow to his head, Xapferey spun over another attempt at his chest and began a vicious attack sequence and Ashram had to work to parry them, a shot to the face Ashram knocked aside, the returning blow was a sweeping backhand that Ashram ducked under and was forced to step back to regain his balance. Xapferey followed, forcing Ashram to defend further again as Xapferey aimed a snap-kick at his knee that Ashram managed to step aside from.

Ashram knew he had to knock this man out of the aggressor role and fast, he hoped that the man's defense was worse than his furious assault style. An opening presented itself, a very slight one but it was enough to knock Xapferey back and force him onto the defense.

Xapferey stepped back and smoothly parried aside all of Ashram's thrusts, turning them away with quick and tight motions, not wasting any unnecessary energy. Xapferey parried aside an overhead thrust and shifted, putting all his effort into showing Ashram's sword aside and taking advantage of the momentary opening to drive his sword into Ashram's shoulder.

Ashram stared slightly, if he had not dropped his shoulder a moment before, the blade would have been in a very painful position. As it was Ashram could feel the blade just resting above his shoulder having missed it by a hair. Ashram then stepped back before charging in and catching Xapferey in a sword lock and the two began straining against the other, trying to overpower their opponent.

Ashram leaned back quickly and backhanded Xapferey causing him to stagger away, off balance. Xapferey flicked his hand at Ashram; the wild telekinetic burst staggered the black knight as Xapferey realized he had bought enough time and it was now time to go.

Xapferey reached into a small pouch and drew out a smoke grenade that Nethalus had given him after they parted and triggered it, relying on the cover granted by the smoke cloud to withdraw. His minor goal had been to test himself against Ashram, but his major goal was to buy enough time for the others to get away and having completed that, Xapferey withdrew from a fight that was unwinnable. Xapferey knew even if he did beat Ashram, his forces would overwhelm him.

Xapferey retreated and ran as fast as he could away, but a Goblin jumped him from the side and the two struggled for a moment when the Goblin's flailing hand caught and tugged off a pin to a grenade sending the spoon catapulting off to the side.

"Oh… shit," Xapferey groaned as he somersaulted away and flung the grenade away as he bolted away. The chase lasted well over two hours and up to a series of mountainous foothills, as Xapferey rolled into a small cave, a Goblin rolled a boulder down to trap him. This caused a whole series of boulders to come crashing down and plugging the small cave with Xapferey inside it.

"Great, just great," Xapferey groaned as he glared at the rocks, a few spells later made him worry, as tired as he was, he did not have the energy to blow his way out. Xapferey then forced himself into a meditative state to think, which would help preserve the amount of air available in the cave, finally a thought came to Xapferey, a spell that would be highly risky and if he cast it wrong or was not strong enough it would kill him.

'Damned if I do, damned if I don't," Xapferey groused mentally as he began casting the spell, as he chanted the last line of the spell he felt overwhelming pain yelled before blackness took him.

A/N Well that took a little while, if anyone can guess Xapferey's fighting style as in what is was based off of they get a free electronic cake of their choice: I'll give you all one hint, it's based off some of the seven forms of Lightsaber combat, but which ones?

Give me your answer and if right you'll get your cake.


	6. Interlude

Interlude

Pain… yet comfort

Connection… yet disembodied

Knowledge… yet ignorance

Strength … yet weakness

Power … yet helplessness

All these emotions are felt growing within him, and faces, all known, all with different meanings, parents, friends, lover pass through Xapferey's mind as his spell completed its effects.

A burst of endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin and dopamine as Deedlit's face ran through his mind again.

The Sleeper must awaken

Rise… wake… RISE UP

A roar and a burst of power as Xapferey blew the rocks from his path with absolute ease. As he strode from the cave his eyes flashed and a litany of muttered spells flew from his mouth. A moment later there was a rush of wind and clopping noises fading fast leaving a deserted area far behind.

Several hours away Xapferey stopped and rested before he continued. He rode hard for nearly a week, often riding through the night. On the 5th day of hard riding Xapferey dismissed his mount spell and sat by a tree to rest for a bit.

Something awoke him awhile later and as he opened his eyes, he stared into the green eyes of his lover Deedlit the High Elf.

"Xapferey, thank the gods of light."


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Valis and celebrations

Deedlit, Slayn, Ghim, Wood and Abathur rode down the road escorting Princess Fianna in her wagon back to her city. It had taken some time to get her to trust them. Thankfully the princess had woken to see them fleeing the Marmo back to her home city, and the fact they were heading back in the same direction as the capital Roid made it much easier for her to believe their story.

The travel had been easy and surprisingly whatever Xapferey had done had removed any pursuit, that's not to say they weren't extremely worried about the dark haired man.

Last night when Deedlit had been on watch, she had heard a horse galloping in the direction they were traveling, but the rider had not stopped and the night had been undisturbed aside from that one event, so Deedlit felt that it was unnecessary to raise the alarm.

The group quickly returned to the road and continued, off to the side, Deedlit noticed a traveler resting against a tree on the side of the road. Deedlit gasped in surprise as they got close and she recognized Xapferey napping against the tree and ran to him. The group stopped as they saw Deedlit run to the man under the tree but smiled when they recognized him as well.

As Xapferey stirred Deedlit gently kissed him which caused him to open his eyes to meet her green and her smile.

"Xapferey why must you always cause me to worry?" Xapferey shrugged, not having an answer for her as he rubbed his eyes, not having slept much in the past few days, to which the group agreed to take a short break, but princess Fianna was kind enough to allow Xapferey and Slayn to rest in the carriage as they moved towards Valis' capital Roid.

The pathway was smooth and well paved which allowed Xapferey to catch up on some sorely needed sleep; this was an environment where he would need all his wits and to be fully awake in an environment where caffeine was sorely lacking.

Upon arriving at Roid, the group had received a hero's welcome in Valis, Nethalus and the others had not arrived yet, but king Fahn greeted them, and despite Abathur's frightening appearance, the guards left the Zergling alone.

"You six brave souls are truly heroes, come now and raise your heads up high," Fahn encouraged.

"No your majesty, we cannot do so," Slayn replied modestly.

"Fianna's return has awarded me a strategic advantage in this war, please allow me to look at you" The group raised their heads and stared at the elderly king as he studied each of the six before him. Getting in to see the king was very easy, being the saviors of his daughter; and in Xapferey's mind he found that the anime did the man no justice whatsoever. Fahn exuded majesty and radiance; he had an aura of command that no king of Earth's past could hope to match.

Fahn had kept the welcoming simple, heartfelt thanks and a basic welcome, though when he said Parn's name Xapferey could see the hidden emotions in his eyes because his future knowledge.

After the group was dismissed, Xapferey was surprised to run into Jebra and nearly collapsed when he heard that Jebra had assembled a total of 3500 volunteers to form an army under the 'Draconic Knight.' Xapferey realized that Jebra was speaking about the gold Dragon emblem on his armor and nearly hit Nethalus upside the head when he jokingly said.

"So much for avoiding military commission huh Xapferey?" Xapferey sighed and rolled his eyes, being a Juyo master (or as close to one as he could be without Force powers) Xapferey was hiding his true feelings, and he wanted to scream. But Xapferey was also debating how to deal with his army and train it properly.

Forcing his frustration back under control, Xapferey began immediately taking stock of what he had to deal with, although he was also very aware of the upcoming ball he would be attending and unlike Parn, he was not going to ignore Deedlit in favor of adulation of the king of Flaim.

Xapferey then began taking stock of his army, he would take combined arms tactics to the maximum, and he had hopefully enough time to prepare his secret weapon 'The Linebreakers.' Now he had to break down the glory seekers into an actual army.

'How the hells did you manage father?' He grumbled mentally as he went to relax. As he rested in the room provided for him when a beeping noise came from his pack. Reaching in, he found his laptop was the reason for the beeping noise and opening it he found a message on it.

_Accept video chat from XAS… Yes? No?_

He clicked yes and soon the face of his benefactor appeared on the screen with his lips pursed to keep Xapferey quiet.

"So your plans are advancing," it was more a statement then a question.

"Yes High Lord."

"XAS is fine, what you're suggesting can be done… sadly you don't have the resources to pull it off here."

"I do have resources back home."

"And I suppose I could play banker for you, make it so that your monetary funds are converted are ready for you, and I will make sure what you need is either available through a one-shot spell or through another 'convenient' merchant."

"That was you wasn't it? I thought something was fishy about that merchant."

"I do hope you are not comparing me to a fish," XAS said with a playful smirk.

"Fish, no… seaweed yes."

"Seaweed?"

"Well you are being very kelpful," XAS let out a pained groan at the horrible pun and gave a mock glare at Xapferey.

"Fine, fine everything will be arranged for you, I shouldn't have to say this next bit do I?"

"Let Deedlit stew? Nope, though how you deal with the palace dressing I'll never know."

"UGH… Ok, enough, good luck, you'll need it and remember Abathur has uses even if he's only one Zergling."

"I know, be well," Xapferey closed the chat after XAS waved good-bye. As promised, XAS had came through with Xap's requests and with some logistical aid from king Fahn, Xapferey had arranged for his army to be fully equipped, leaving enough time for Xapferey to ready himself for the ball.

Xapferey dressed in a black doublet with split sleeves with silver edging, black trousers and thigh-high black boots and left his chambers after magically concealing his other gear in his bag of holding. The bag itself was heavily warded to only allow himself, Deedlit, Abathur, Nethalus and Pirotess to open it, much less access the gear within.

Xapferey also hid one of his Glocks in his clothing to deal with the upcoming 'problem' that would interrupt the ball sometime through, he also attached a laser sight to the pistol just in case he needed it before he left to meet Deedlit. When he arrived, Deedlit had just arrived and gave a graceful little spin for Xapferey to show off her borrowed dress.

"Well?" She asked Xapferey with a joyful smile on her face.

"You look lovely my dear," Xapferey said as he took her hand to escort her.

At the ball, Etoh and Slayn were talking as they watched the nobles socialize and mingle; the king was on his chair at the head of the room after he had saluted the room with his raised goblet. Fiona stood near her father as she looked over the room before coming to join her rescuers.

"You'd never expect we were about to go to war," Etoh was saying to Slayn.

"A traditional way to raise morale, I am saddened to think how many will now be coming home," Slayn said as Parn joined them and Etoh gasped drawing their attention to the stairs where Xapferey and Deedlit were descending, both of them were smiling

"Xapferey, Deedlit."

"I'm not used to such fancy clothes, well? Deedlit asked.

"Oh Deed you both look so wonderful," Fiona said, "I only wish dear Etoh had changed as well."

"But, but… Princess I'm a cleric," Etoh stammered.

"Is that what they really teach you? Never take off your priestly robe?" She mock questioned. An hour later after a bard began playing a song about the six heroes Fahn, Beld, Neese the high priestess of Marfa, Flieve the Dwarf king, Wort the great sage of Moss, and an unnamed hero. As the song ended the main doors to the hall opened and a man dressed in high quality armor and escorted by two guards entered the hall.

"Oh my, it's king Kashue," somebody said which caused a wave of appreciative murmurs to move through the hall and Parn to take on an admiring look while Xapferey answered Deedlit's question on who the newcomer was.

"That's Kashue?" Deedlit asked and Xapferey nodded. The ball progressed with Kashue leaving and returning after changing from his armor and traveling gear into clothing more suitable for the ball. Xapferey had stepped out for a bit of air while Deedlit socialized with some of the ladies of the court, but returned not too long after to see Deedlit excusing herself from the group of noblewomen to join him with a joyful expression.

"Oh boy what a bore, it's tiring to be laughing at nothing all the time," Xapferey had a slight smile playing about his lips as he looked at Deedlit.

"I wouldn't know."

"Ugh, I can barely move in this gown… I can never understand why you humans like getting dressed up all the time."

"Sometimes I don't either," Xapferey replied as he eyed a couple of envious male nobles and restrained a very Draconic growl at the two eyeing Deedlit. Deedlit however did not notice and moved to Xapferey's right side.

"I'd say my regular clothes look much better, right Xapferey?"

"You look beautiful regardless my love," Xapferey said with a loving smile, his eyes flickered slightly as he sensed Karla, she was trying to mask herself and doing a pretty decent job of it, but considering Xapferey was being alert and Slayn had retired for the night, there was nobody paying attention to locus's of power. Deedlit giggled as she watched Etoh be pulled into dancing with Fiona, but brushing it aside, Deedlit pulled Xapferey gently to the dance floor.

Xapferey let Deedlit lead slightly, but he was still a very graceful dancer, one of the skills his mother had gotten him to learn when he was much younger and a skill that had applied to help his later martial training. The two continued dancing until they bumped into someone that turned out to be king Kashue.

"Oh, I'm sorry your highness," Xapferey apologized.

"Ah our brave hero, I have heard much about your skill in battle."

"Makes me wonder how much of my skills are exaggerated," Xapferey replied with a small smile

"Am I wrong? But didn't you come here to fight?"

"I came to help protect the people of Lodoss and if I have to fight to do it, then I will."

"Ah such wisdom, I look forwards to seeing your prowess as a fighter and a leader."

"In time your highness. But please excuse me your majesty, I have a lovely lady on my arm and it would be rude of me to neglect her."

"Of course," Kashue said with a smile as Xapferey bowed to him then he and Deedlit went to the balcony to get some air and they noticed Ghim standing there in a funk.

"Oh Ghim," Deedlit murmured before a crash of pottery and a woman's scream caught their attention. Xapferey caught sight of the man he knew Karla enchanted to attack Kashue, and the man was far larger than a normal human now. As Naba, the enchanted man advanced on Kashue, Parn was tossed a sword by Woodchuck. Then, as Parn was moving to help king Kashue with Naba, the room was deafened by two thunderous cracks.

Naba swayed and crashed to the ground, missing the back of his head and the room turned to see Xapferey holding a strange weapon with the end smoking. Deedlit was holding her ears and glaring at Xapferey for using the gun so close to her.

Holstering his sidearm, Xapferey muttered a spell which allowed him to view magic and muttered "her again," loud enough for Kashue to hear him.

"Her who?" He asked Xapferey.

"The sorceress that captured princess Fiona, this spell cast on this man smacks of her magical signature, I recognize it after the last time I saw her.

"Ah."

"I agree, we should be very wary if she can strike in the city itself."

"Indeed."

"Please excuse me your majesty, I have a few things to attend to."

Kashue nodded politely to Xapferey as he escorted Deedlit from the hall to her chambers. Leaving Deedlit to change or rest, Xapferey went back to his own chambers to change, his magical senses casting about for Karla, but if she was still nearby, she was hiding herself very well, too well for Xapferey to spot.

Growling to himself, Xapferey began patrolling the corridors until he ran into Deedlit.

"Much better right Xapferey?"

"Yes my dear, but I still say you looked lovely in that gown," the two spent some time walking about before they retired to their rooms for the night, for tomorrow Xapferey would begin training his army.


	8. Chapter 7

Early the next morning, Xapferey was staring at the current ragtag army and preparing his spiel; Nethalus, Jebra and Parn were standing nearby, ready to assist him. He sighed quietly before he began dividing his forces into the separate units that was required.

"All right, I want everyone with experience with a bow to go over there, I want a minimum of 750 men over there, everyone who is my height or taller group over there, as for the rest of you, form ranks and I will get to you in a few moments.

"Um, sir, I came here to learn a sword, not how to shoot people," one man with a bow said "it's not very heroic."

'Here we go," Xapferey grumbled mentally "you will, but that's not your primary purpose; your purpose is to support the swordsmen. You will get enough sword training to protect yourselves, but that is secondary." Xapferey paused for a moment before deciding to begin his speech. "If you came here for glory, then go home. You are here to be an army, and that means you are here to fight under my command. My tactics may seem unusual. They may not be considered heroic. But they will bring you victory. You," Xapferey pointed at the man who spoke up originally "what's your name?"

"Jarred sir."

"Jarred, I take it you have a family back home, maybe a sweetheart?" Jarred nodded, slightly perplexed before Xapferey used a spell to amplify his voice. "Most if not all of you have families and those important to you back home. Now tell me, will you fight to protect them?" Scattered murmurs of assent were his answer. "Now tell me; if it came to a choice between a little glory or the lives of your loved ones, which would you pick?!"

"LOVED ONES SIR," His army shouted back.

"You are here to hold back the Marmo, you are here to keep your people safe, and you are here so that your families can enjoy their freedom. Isn't that something worth fighting for, isn't that something worth dying for?" His army cheered, their morale growing with each word. "The Marmo expect us to cower before them. They expect us to break before them. They expect us to be afraid." He smirked humorlessly. "When we're done here, we shall give the Marmo something to fear, we will make them cower at our very presence and we shall show them how war is truly fought!"

After finishing his speech, Xapferey, Nethalus, Parn and Jebra began assigning people to companies and the explaining the simplified ranking scheme; Jebra was appointed Xapferey's second in command with Nethalus as his third. The middle officers would have to be decided later as others within his army began to shine.

Xapferey took charge of the special group of his army. They were equipped with strong padded breastplates with chain shirts protecting the rest of their torso. A pair of vambrances was to be strapped on their forearms to provide decent protection without compromising mobility. For weapons, all were to be given a brace of throwing knives and a short sword. Their primary weapon however was the odachi, a katana the size of a great-sword.

Xapferey began pairing the men up, each pair functioning as a unit within the main group. "Your weapons as you can imagine have greater swinging arcs than a regular longsword, but their reach and the power you can put behind a swing makes up for that. What you must consider is your partner; they will buy you the time you need to return to guard. You must trust each other, to draw upon one and other. You will learn to predict the other's moves and act accordingly. Your power comes from being a team so we must build that trust."

Xapferey began teaching them teamwork exercises to build coordination. For hours they practiced the teamwork exercises before Xapferey switched them to practicing with the swords. One line would swing the swords slowly, then the staggered line behind would step forwards and swing their weapons, before repeating the steps.

The men were ready to drop from everything after several hours, so Xapferey called it early, telling them to get a good night sleep. He warned that he would not be tolerant of hangovers. It still being somewhat early, Xapferey went to find Slayn for help in a runecrafting project.

"Slayn you busy?" Xapferey asked as he knocked on the mage's quarters.

"Not at the moment, what do you need my friend?" he asked after he opened the door, standing aside to welcome Xapferey into the room. Xapferey tossed Slayn a circlet engraved with runes.

"I recognize the runes for communication, but these others I do not."

"Selection, and sending and receiving runes, with your help I can finish this project."

"What sort of aid do you require?"

"I managed to make a system to complete the circlets, and Nethalus, Deedlit and I tested them successfully, well the few I managed to charge myself, but I still have many many more to complete. I'm at a roadblock when it comes to speeding up production in terms of charging the runes," Xapferey explained. Slayn sat at a table near his friend, his brows furrowed in thought.

"Perhaps… perhaps we are thinking too small, is there some way to charge the runes with the magical energies in the leylines?" Slayn asked.

Xapferey stared at him. "Slayn you're a genius. I created a runecrafted tablet of sort which charges a machine from my world by drawing magical energy from the leylines, and we can use such a trick to charge these, we just need a far bigger plate. The one I have at the moment could comfortably charge at best four at a time."

"Then we should begin our acquisition of new plates to prepare our plan to expedite the charging of these circlets."

They quickly acquired two more plates from the blacksmith, and began work immediately. Xapferey had Slayn practice the runes on a small chalkboard while he inscribed them onto the plates. Slayn at this point understood much of the theory behind runecrafting but had not had much of a chance to learn handwritten or scribed Draconic.

Once the inscription process was completed, Xapferey got Slayn to help him charge the runes under Xapferey's guidance; after two hours work of finessing the energy levels, the charging plates activated and began drawing energy.

"It's working," Slayn said with a smile. "Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me Xapferey."

"My pleasure Slayn, now we just need to get these circlets onto the plates and the runes will be charged over time. They'll begin glowing slightly once they've absorbed all they can hold, but shouldn't go past that."

"You should get some rest Xapferey, it's getting late," Slayn said at seeing his friend hide a yawn.

"You know what, you're right, thanks again Slayn." Xapferey smiled gratefully before he left to his room. Exhaustion finally caught up to him, and he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

_Three days later_

With the charging of the runic plates and communication circlets complete, Xapferey brought them to his army and began incorporating them in his Combined Arms Action doctrine. With communications from the swordsmen, the archers were now able to accurately volley arrows close to the front line, normally a high-risk tactic, but with accurate and constant communication, the risk undertaken was far less.

The rank and file were in awe at the ease of communications, and the officers loved it. The Linebreaker forces under Xapferey's direct training were still learning to coordinate with each other, and slowly sword moves were added. The movements comprised of wide and powerful swings, combined with spins, when synchronized with their partners, each member of the Linebreakers would be able to cleave a line, spin behind their partner who would do the same, buying time for the first partner to get back into position and repeating until the whole line were cleaving through the enemy while moving forwards.

Having finished training for another day, Xapferey went for dinner with Deedlit. The High Elf was waiting for him as he arrived, she had a gentle smile but her eyes lit up on seeing him. Xapferey let her sit first before sitting across from her.

"How is training?"

"Well considering I saw you watching several times, you should know," Xapferey said with a teasing smirk.

"I thought I was being unobtrusive."

"Oh you were, I have better eyesight than most."

"How did you create the concept of these Linebreakers?"

"It was several ideas, I borrowed the idea from a… play of sorts called Lord of the Rings, and the doctrine of a division of the Cilarista species, the 447th division: The Linebreakers."

"So you are copying ideas from others then?"

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I am not plagiarizing, that is to say copying without credit granted to the original source."

"Fair enough I suppose, they are impressive now, but when fully trained…"

Deedlit winced at the thought of the Linebreakers slamming into an enemy force. As they ate Deedlit began asking questions of Xapferey's old world.

"So what did you do for a living?"

"I relied on a combination of …" Xapferey paused for a moment to think about how to explain the stock market to the Elf. "Tenancy on properties owned by my family, and …um… commodity exchanges for lack of a better term. My true passion was in trying to understand the mind through the field of psychology. "

"I'm guessing from what you said about advanced technology, but could you see the brain as it was working in a person?"

"Yes and no, yes we could see which sections of the brain were being used, and how much energy were being used by it to an extent. Could we see thoughts? No, at least not yet."

"I see, so you understand how to detect and treat injuries?"

"To an extent, without the technology to see the brain I would have to rely on physical tests and more guesswork than I want to admit to. "

"That's fair I suppose," Deedlit trailed off in companionable silence while they ate. As time went on, Deedlit mulled over what Xapferey had shared with her. The Elf was growing very curious about the types of Dragons that could change their form.

"Xapferey what can I expect when you are a Dragon, what would change? Your brain would change, but you as a person?" She asked.

"I will be able to maintain my old human form as a preferred alternate form. I will be immortal obviously, but I will be growing again."

"Growing?"

"I will only be a juvenile in Dragon terms, not until I reach 1200 years of age will I be finished growing so at times I may act a little immaturely. Hmm, as my wife I will be more… protective and at times possessive of you."

"Possessive? Deedlit said with raised eyebrows.

"What I mean is that when others attempt to gain your romantic attentions or try to harm you I will react rather defensively or even aggressively at times. It's instinctual so I may not always be able to suppress it."

"I see, and which form would you prefer to be in?"

"Whichever depending on my mood or the situation."

"Oh, what about a home? As a Dragon, I know your kind do live in caves… I do love you but that is not what I imagined for a home."

"Something to properly sort out after the war ends my love. But I would craft you a palace for us alone if you wished it of me."

"If your army is successful, I think you will have many who would aid you in that," Deedlit said with a smile.

"True, but all I need is you," Xapferey said truthfully. He knew it sounded a little cheesy but he honestly did not care at the moment.

"I would recommend though that you complete the bloodrite before we return to the Forest, your immortality would make it easier for you to pass through the forest again."

"I can arrange that easily enough," Xapferey said with a smile. The two finished and broke for the night to sleep. Xapferey woke to a knocking on his door; Xapferey opened it to find a guard informing him that King Fahn wished to see him for an emergency council. The news was rather bleak; the northern border of Valis had fallen to Marmo's advance. Prince Jester of Moss promised to aid and reinforce Vails' garrisons and it was recommended that somebody go to see the reclusive sage Wort in Moss

"The journey is a long and perilous one," Fahn was saying.

"I can handle this if you would allow me, my second and third in command can look after my army, and Nethalus has been instructed on what has been required for my forces to keep their training schedule going while I am gone."

"Very well Xapferey, we will await word once you have returned."

Xapferey bowed and departed the room. He returned to bed to rest for a few more hours before he packed what he needed, then sought out his traveling companions. He found Parn, Deedlit, Slayn, Etoh, Wood and Ghim and briefed them on what was required.

"We are pressed for time, so hopefully somebody knows a faster way through?"

"I don't suppose you could magic us a portal with those runes?" Woodchuck asked.

"No, and I have three reasons, one I have never been to Wort's. Can't portal to where I have never been, two I don't know how to make portals, that requires research and three I don't have the time to do research on that… I'm a sorcerer, not a miracle worker."

"We can take the Dwarves old tunnel," Slayn suggested and Ghim grunted his assent.

"I'll take ya through," the Dwarf said and the group went off out of the city journeying towards Moss and Wort.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Within Valis

Xapferey had changed his mind about going, but had sent Parn, Etoh, Slayn, Woodchuck and Ghim to get the information from Wort. Deedlit had decided to stay with Xapferey so she could spend more time with the man she loved.

Upon being asked why he had changed his mind and was not joining them replied that as a general of an army, he realized he no longer had the luxury to go gallivanting on side quests. Although with Parn taken in as his apprentice, Xapferey was able to delegate the task to the young man as a means of getting more experience.

After seeing his friends off to the Dwarven tunnel, Xapferey returned to train his army. Currently, the Linebreakers had graduated from teamwork exercises to practicing the motions that would make them feared.

"Front rank cleave," Xapferey ordered and the front rank slashed at imaginary enemies "first rank spin behind, and second rank cleave."

The Linebreakers obeyed their orders as they went through the motions, cleaves followed by spins or small jumps backwards to bring them into a protected position before repeating. Their motions were slowly increasing in speed as they gained experience with the positioning of their partners and skill with the weapon.

Xapferey rubbed a hand over his chin as he watched the Linebreakers practice. He had decided to let some things play out as canonically as possible; namely the meeting with Karla and Wort. There was an excellent chance that Wort would realize he was a plane-walker, and Xapferey wanted to keep that knowledge as limited as possible.

Seeing things well in hand under the commands of Jebra and Nethalus, Xapferey withdrew to focus on an important rune-crafting project, his most secret project. Opening his laptop, Xapferey then began a security password to protect the file knowing only his eidetic memory would possibly be able to remember it.

Xapferey locked the file and began working on it.

~~_Project is ambitious, and dangerous. More research is required before construction can even begin. Construction will have to wait until I gain a secure location for testing and implementation of the foundational runic structures. Secondary projects are currently in progress. ~~ _

Xapferey closed the file on his computer and plugged in his headphones before returning to his almost completed shield project.

Because of the music playing in his ears Xapferey did not notice the knocking on his door but his proximity ward alerted him to Deedlit's presence outside the door. Xapferey pulled a headphone out of his ear and flicked his hand at the door causing it to open. Deedlit entered with a smile as she walked in, she realized Xapferey was hard at work.

"Are you busy?"

"No, I almost finished."

"What are you working on?"

He grinned. "It's a surprise."

Deedlit pouted playfully at his refusal but she tilted her head quizzically at the headphone coming from Xapferey's left ear, it was not something she had seen before.

"What is that?" She asked

"It's called a headphone, it allows me to listen to music privately when connected to a player," Xapferey gestured Deedlit and she held the free headphone wire up to her ear to hear the song _Bed-Sitter Images by Al Stewart _playing. 

"Interesting."

"It's useful to tune out distractions when working on something."

"Am I distracting you?" She asked with a playful grin.

"Nope," Xapferey said as he closed the lid of his laptop to pay more attention to Deedlit.

"Good, I wanted to talk to you, and find out more about what your plans are for our future."

Xapferey nodded in agreement as he brought a chair for Deedlit to sit down.

"I am willing to do anything you wish of me Deedlit, as my wife to be I consider you my equal and I value your opinion even if I might not agree with it at times."

Deedlit smiled at that, she knew from earlier conversations that Xapferey considered himself to have a more progressive mindset.

"Do you have a map of Lodoss available?"

"Yes," Xapferey said as he pulled one out of his bag. Deedlit unrolled it and looked around before she noticed a patch of forest by her homelands but not actually included in the wards around the Forest of no Return.

"Here, it's close enough that we could visit my homeland with ease and still be able to be visited by our friends. And if your army wished to settle there after the war, the area is unclaimed."

"Then that is settled, what about children?"

"As many as you wish to have Deedlit."

Deedlit smiled and nodded as Xapferey stood up and led her out of the room for a walk. Opening the door, the two went to walk through the gardens of the city and they had dinner together before they retired for the night.

_The next day_

Xapferey groaned as he realized one of his most hated days of the year rang through his mind: the day of his parent's death. Xapferey threw his mental shields to maximum with a snarl as he attempted to suppress the hated memories. "I'm going out for a walk, I want to be alone," he said to Abathur as he put a note on his door without a destination.

A few hours later, Xapferey was sitting on the battlements with his eyes closed and generally ignoring the world around him. Hours later, Xapferey was still sitting on the battlements and like Parn, he was thinking about his parents. He was hoping they would approve of his choices and his future plans. He knew his father would be overjoyed and playfully annoyed that Xap outranked him as a 4-star general, and impressed by what he had done with his army.

Xapferey smiled as he knew this was the part of the anime where Deedlit would come looking for Parn with a lute over her shoulder to serenade him. Unlike the young teen, Xapferey was not going to request Deedlit stay behind. He knew how capable she was and he knew it would insult her pride to request such of her as well and Xapferey was no idiot.

'Here she comes,' he though as he caught the scent of Deedlit as she approached him with a joyful smile on her face.

"Found you," she giggled as she twirled around and sat by Xapferey's feet while playing the lute and smiling at him. Xapferey smiled back at the Elf as he enjoyed the rush of love and affection that was shaking him of his sour mood. The two sat in comfortable silence as she played, enjoying the company of the other.

"I have something for you, the project I mentioned earlier, I've only made a few as they were quite difficult, it fits into your armor and this clips over your wrist," Xapferey said as he pulled a thin runecrafted tablet and plain band out of his bag.

"What does it do?" Deedlit asked.

"It projects a regenerating magical shield around you. It has a reserve of power and it links with the bracelet to tell you how strong the shield is. I've linked several runes so that only you can see how strong or weak the shield is and it will also replenish the reserves of energy by drawing off ambient magical or other energies, but that is done slowly."

"Well that can be useful, are you suggesting I cannot protect myself?" Deedlit asked as she arched an eyebrow at him.

"Far from it my love… this is just an extra layer of security. The world is full of people that will attack you from behind, let the shield deal with that."

"How many do you have?"

"6, enough for you, me, Parn, Jebra, Nethalus and Pirotess."

"Then our closest friends and allies shall be protected. Will you be making more?"

"Soon, they take a very long time, and I have other projects I want to begin."

"That works," Deedlit said with a grin, happy she had pulled Xapferey out of his sour mood as she pulled him into a kiss.

_Two weeks later _

Xapferey was in the throne room, listening to Parn's report what he had 'learned' about Karla from Wort. Parn had entered the throne room and bowed respectfully to king Fahn before kneeling to make his report.

You have returned safely."

"Yes your highness."

"Tell me what you've learned," Fahn requested.

"The great sage Wort confirmed my suspicions from my research in the archives. Karla is a survivor from the kingdom of sorcery. According to the great sage Wort's exact words, "for these past 500 years in different forms and guises, when the balance of Lodoss is tipped; she appears, she uses her powers to affect the course of history, prince and peasant alike are just pawns to her… or so she believes."

Fahn grimaced slightly "so now we are all just pawns in a game."

"Is that Parn I hear?" King Kashue asked as he approached and bowed respectfully to Fahn.

"King Kashue, milord," Parn said with a smile. Kashue clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh. Fahn then presented Parn with a shield of the Holy Knights as a gift, the boy being too short to join the Linebreakers at the moment though he did have the potential to become one.

"Your army has a fine young member," Kashue said to Xapferey.

"Parn is young, but he has great potential, as he gains more experience I hope to see him take command of the Linebreakers," Xapferey said clapping the boy's shoulder causing him to turn in surprise and admiration.

"You really think so?"

"Keep growing and training and I see you even having a command of your own," Xapferey knew that armies as they gained fame would gain recruits, even an unaffiliated army like his. Parn was smiling as he raised the shield in the air in celebration.

Later that day, Xapferey and Deedlit joined Parn to see off king Kashue. The king was taking a expeditionary force to engage the Marmo.

"Parn I'll be waiting," Kashue offered over his shoulder as he rode off to prepare his army for the battle. Xapferey waited a few moments before he heard the whistle of a knife through the air before he snatched it from its flight and threw it back causing the thrower to yelp in shock.

"Who's there?" Parn demanded as a rueful Woodchuck came around the corner.

"If that was meant as a joke, it wasn't very funny," Deedlit sniped.

"Take it easy Deedlit, I just wanted to see how those two would handle it, being their first war and all," Wood replied.

"Well you can stop worrying, because I plan to protect King Fahn no matter what."

"No matter how many men you will have to kill?" Wood asked

"We can handle it Wood, don't you worry," Xapferey replied.

"Well if you're sure."

"I'm sure."

"Then good luck, we'll all need it, especially you general," Woodchuck said while teasing Xapferey lightly before he walked off.

The two embraced for a time before retiring, on the morrow they were heading to war.


	10. Chapter 9

~~~~ communications via circlets

I borrowed the opening lyrics to _This is War_ by _30 Seconds to Mars_ these are italicized.

In one adaptation of the war Karla is on the battlefield and shoots Beld with a crossbow, rather than a massive javelin, in the OVA I cannot tell if she is in the area or not, but she'll be there in my portrayal here.

Chapter 9: The War of Heroes

The army had assembled and departed Valis, each of Xapferey's troops bearing his sigil on tabards marking them part of his army and distinguishing them from the Valisian troops.

Xapferey showed Jebra and the others how to deactivate the runic shields incorporated in their armor as they marched. He knew this would be one of his greatest tests and he was prepared. Deedlit was riding at his side as they rode to the battle.

"Copper for your thoughts?" Deedlit asked with a grin.

"Thinking."

"About what?"

"Many things, this battle, how we will hold up… my people have a saying, no plan survives first contact with the enemy."

"Seems appropriate," Deedlit agreed as she spied Pirotess by Nethalus. The Dark Elf was still under her magical glamour and wearing runecrafted leather armor similar to Deedlit's though Pirotess' armor lacked the extensive pauldrons. "Do you trust her?"

"Enough to turn my back to her when in battle. Everyone can rise above who they were… we are defined by our choices not our abilities or race Deedlit."

Deedlit sighed and nodded as she relaxed her grip on her horse's reins.

"I suppose you're right. I'll try to be less suspicious of her."

Xapferey rubbed Deedlit's hand in a loving manner.

"That is all I can ask for my love."

The two continued riding in comfortable silence before the foggy lands where the battle was taking place came into sight. Triggering his communication circlet Xapferey sent orders to his troops as he knew what was coming and hopefully his plan to deal with Karla would pay off.

~~Formation group beta, archers string your bows, Linebreakers ready.~~

The responses came through with affirmatives as his troops circled around to follow his orders as they arrived to the battle.

Most of Kashue's forces were dead by this point, along with the army of Marmo beast troops. Beld's army had arrived directly in front, a rather daunting sight considering their sizable numbers.

Ashram appeared with his force boxing in the beleaguered allied armies. Xapferey made a decision before he signaled king Fahn with the circlets. ~~Your majesty, might I suggest reinforcing king Kashue? My forces will battle Ashram's. ~~

~~Very well, ~~ Fahn replied as his armies marched forwards.

~~Archers prepare to volley, Linebreakers on me, we're cutting into them and halting at the entry point where we shall remain until I order otherwise. Swordsmen advance to a halfway point between the Linebreakers. ~~

~~Yes sir. ~~

Xapferey began to hum a song under his breath as they formed up; Jebra with the swordsmen, Pirotess and Nethalus with the bowmen. At his side, Deedlit could hear him quietly singing.

"_A warning to the people, The good and the evil, This is war. To the soldier, the civilian, The martyr, the victim, This is war. It's the moment of truth, and the moment to lie, The moment to live and the moment to die, The moment to fight, the moment to fight To fight, to fight, to FIGHT!"_

~~Linebreakers forwards! ~~ Xapferey roared over the link as he finished his song and the 750 elite troops charged forwards with battle cries.

The division of Linebreakers charged forwards to meet Ashram's force and with a great sweep of their weapons, they cleaved into Ashram's front lines. After completing their strike, the first line danced behind the second line allowing them to cleave before repeating the process. At the moment of the third strike, Xapferey's archers began volleys over their heads into the ranks of Ashram's forces.

Xapferey let out a roar as he began hacking his way through the enemy with Deedlit beside him. Xapferey parried aside a kobold before stabbing as it passed before he cleaved apart a goblin. Now he was facing several human Marmo troops and with a roar he charged them.

The Linebreakers had become a meat grinder for Ashram's forces, the twirling and flashing monster swords were difficult to parry, but when combined with multiple attacks from the twirling Linebreakers, they were nigh impossible to block.

Jebra redeployed some groups of swordsmen to watch the rear of their army and guard the archers. His swordsmen were yet not engaged with any of Marmo's troops due to the Linebreakers.

Jebra listened to the reports filtering through the communication circlets, something he was still marveling at. It made communication across the battlefield and tracking all his soldiers a godsend and less risk to runners bringing messages. As Jebra listened, he decided to provide Fahn with a few volleys and requested the archers to fire on the Marmo armies engaging with Fahn and Kashue's combined army. Several volleys flew through the air to impact into the Marmo forces and many fell screaming in pain or dead to the pointed shafts.

Across the battlefield, Xapferey and Deedlit were engaged alongside the Linebreakers. Deedlit skipped back as Xapferey carved into a Marmo officer then he somersaulted backwards allowing Deedlit to stab a kobold in the eye. The two were a team just like the Linebreakers, and had spent many months to learn the fighting style of the other and work it with their own.

Xapferey launched a telekinetic wave at the Marmo forces, knocking them back several meters.

_~~Reform the line~~_ he ordered. The Linebreakers shifted rapidly in response to his order, the front line holding their blades pointing upwards, the second line held their weapons in a overhead grip, ready to bring them down in a great slicing motion to cleave through their enemies.

The Marmo forces charged again with a roar, humiliated that this much smaller force had slain so many of their number.

~~Archers, 5 volleys, decreasing angle ~~ Xapferey ordered. The archers responded by losing five shafts each into the onrushing Marmo horde, the front line of Libreakers jumped back the moment before the Marmo line would have clashed, as such they were momentarily off balance and the second line cleaved through the front of the Marmo assault. The Linebreakers then surged forwards, shifting between the two lines as they counterattacked the Marmo; the smaller but better trained forces of the Linebreakers cutting a bloody swath through the Marmo army.

Xanpferey then jumped up and activated the runes on his boots and readied his G11 on full auto. Soon the area echoed with the report of a firearm and the Linebreakers halted for a moment as they stared at the gruesome wounds caused by a firearm but they quickly continued, heartened that such a weapon was on their side. The Marmo forces in the rear were completely demoralized, between archer fire, the Linebreakers and now this fearsome new weapon, their cohesiveness as a fighting force was breaking down and some began to retreat from the battlefield.

Deedlit bounced up to where Xapferey was crouching before Xapferey spotted Ashram. The Black Knight was attempting to rally the Marmo forces to the rear and was doing a decent job of it before Xapferey emptied the last of his magazine into Ashram's officers. Xapferey then slid and jumped down to stare at the Black Knight, he stared back with a slightly impressed look.

"I have no idea how you survived, but it doesn't matter now… all that matters is the sword."

Ashram struck at Xapferey and he parried. Xapferey sidestepped around a slash as he smashed the pommel of his sword into Ashram's chest plate. The Black Knight stepped back as he surveyed the dent with mild surprise before he began hacking at Xapferey with skilled yet clipped strikes. Ashram did not bother with feints at that moment as he could tell this swordsman would probably recognize them and avoid them.

The two caught each other in a swordlock and began pushing in an attempt to overcome the other. Xapferey shifted lower then shoved forwards, knocking Ashram off balance with a surprising surge of strength. Ashram backpedaled as he worked to regain his balance as Xapferey advanced on him. The two then came together in another clash of arms when a shout rang out across the battlefield.

"BELD! BEEELLLLD! WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU? COME ON, SHOW YOURSELF. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID? SURELY YOU HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN MY FACE? BELD, BELD… HEY BELD… BELLLD…. BELLLD."

Xapferey watched as Ashram pulled away and ran to join his lord. Xapferey grimaced as he opened his telepathic connection to Abathur.

'Now Abathur, find Wagnard, kill him," Xapferey ordered the Zergling that had been searching the mountains for either Karla or Beld.

'Here's Karla master, this location… she didn't notice me."

'Good, I'm on my way there.' ~~Deedlit rejoin Parn and the others, I have something to take care of.~~

~~Be careful,~~ Deedlit replied over the circlets.

~~I intend to my love.~~

Xapferey muttered an invisibility spell and a silencing spell centered on him. He took off into the air to where the Grey Witch was watching. Karla didn't seem to notice Xapferey as he flew overhead; Karla was too intent on the duel between Fahn and Beld to notice what was above her and with a controlled motion, Xapferey flew down at a rapid rate. The silencing spell muffled the air around him as he passed through it and with a motion of his hand; he swiped the circlet from Leylia's forehead as he passed by. His invisibility spell faded to reveal his form to Karla who stared in shock. The Grey Witch had a few remaining moments of coherency in Leylia's body as she triggered a contingency spell. A couple of large javelins flew at the two rulers followed by a massive lightning bolt, Karla was taking no chances with her last spell as she intended to maintain the balance despite the loss of a host.

Xapferey growled a powerful spell and his flight speed shattered the sound barrier, allowing him to just beat Karla's spell. He tackled the two rulers and sheltered them behind his large forearms and claws.

"**FETHOS DI ARCANISS!" **He roared as a shield of magic reinforced the one on his armor. His bracelet warbled in alarm as his shields buckled and one javelin stuck in his armor slightly and vibrated for a few moments before it fell out.

Xapferey released Fahn and Beld as they both staggered away as everyone stared in shock at the appearance of a gold Dragon in familiar armor with an enlarged version of a communication circlet on his head. Xapferey was easily thirty feet long from the tip of his tail to his snout as his body shifted to give the two rulers room. his wings were large and finlike and a trail of spines ran from the back of his head down his long neck and back to the end of his tail. Upon his face were several limp tentacles, which looked very much like a catfish's whiskers, giving him the appearance of having a long mustache. Upon its head were two swept-back ridged horns and his golden eyes glowed with power.

"Xapferey…" Deedlit gasped as she stared at his new form and she walked towards him. "You… you went through the bloodrite."

"**Yes my dear, I am now a Dragon albeit earlier that I had originally planned, but you have Ashram there to thank for my need of having to undergo the ritual far earlier than planned."**

Xapferey then turned his attention to Fahn and Beld, both were rather shell shocked from the sonic boom cause by Xapferey's movements and being tackled by the revealed Dragon.

"How?" Fahn asked

"**I am not native to Lodoss, and in my bloodline was a Dragon. These Dragons could shapeshift into humanoids and have children. I called forth that bloodline and purged my human half,"** Xapferey explained.

"Why?"

"For Deedlit. I am immortal now."

Fahn nodded, he knew High Elves were immortal. Beld however chuckled; he himself understood the power of love, considering he started his conquests of Lodoss due to the love for the fallen hero Flaus.

Xapferey turned his attention to the Marmo emperor who had gotten back to his feet, Soul Crusher held loosely at his side.

"**I think we can end this battle don't you emperor?**"

"Your forces are still outnumbered despite that rather impressive showing against Ashram's," Beld countered.

"**Yes, but I think it was evident that Karla engineered enough of this war as part of her balancing schemes. She was the one after all to shoot that javelin and lightning bolt. I doubt either of those would have been conductive to your health if they hit.**"

Beld snorted in agreement.

"What do I get in return?" He asked with an amused expression. Xapferey looked at Fahn and he gestured, saying that Xapferey could offer his thoughts.

"**We will recognize your… acquisition of Kanon, at the very least if you wish to set up a puppet government aligned with Marmo, Valis and my own future nation will not object."**

"Your nation?" Beld asked while Fahn had a look of realization.

"**I do have an army to provide for and I intend to," **Xapferey proclaimed.

"Very well then as long as Fahn can guarantee your suggestion I will accept and withdraw my forces."

"Very well Beld, but if you ever threaten Lodoss again..."

"**Your majesties, please… there is no need for threats right now, perhaps a more useful compromise can be negotiated but for now at least a ceasefire will suffice and hopefully a peace treaty in the future." **

"Very well then, my armies will withdraw to our lands. I do wish you luck in your… endeavors," Beld said as he smirked at the Dragon, his forces then began withdrawing at his order. Jebra then ran up along with Parn to join them both stared in surprise at the Dragon and made to pursue the Marmo forces but Xapferey stopped them.

~~**All forces stand down, the Marmo are withdrawing,**~~ Xapferey ordered and he received acknowledgement from all his unit commanders almost immediately.

Xapferey then pulled out his isolation box. A runecrafted box with 8 physical adamatium locks and 3 separate locking charms and he rested Karla's circlet on it. His mind was now too alien for Karla to take over; not to say Karla was being silent about her predicament, but Xapferey's reinforced and powerful mental shields rebuffed her mental assaults.

Once the circlet had been put in the box and sealed, the pressures of Karla's mental assaults faded. In the distance with his enhanced eyes Xapferey could see the Marmo armies withdrawing back to Kanon.

"**Your majesty, if it would not trouble you, but I hope you would allow my army to remain in your lands for a time while I settle some personal matters."**

"I would be happy to, I look forwards to us meeting as equals in the future."

Xapferey nodded in respect to Fahn and the approaching Kashue before he gathered his forces and retook his human form. All of his forces were staring at him in awe before they arranged in formation at his order.

~~Men, you are to return to Valis, where you go after I leave to you, but if you wish for a new land, a land where in time we will grow and prosper. I will not say it will be easy, nothing in life ever is. But if we work together then we will create something to be proud of. Gather your families and join me when you are ready. I have some affairs to arrange myself, Jebra and Nethalus are in charge while I and Deedlit are gone.~~

~~Understood milord,~~ Jebra sent.

~~Milord?~~ Xapferey sent back with a mental smile.

~~You are our king now Sire, we will await your return.~~

Xapferey nodded to Jebra as he let Deedlit on his back after he retook his Dragon form again.

"**We are going to pick up Abathur then we will see your parents Deedlit," **Xapferey said.

_Elsewhere on the battlefield _

Abathur, the Raptor strain Zergling familiar of Xapferey Manaweaver was bounding from cliff to cliff in search of his target. Finally the Zerg discovered his target glaring down at his master before he flew off and in that moment Abathur pounced viciously on Wagnard, the dark priest of Marmo.

Wagnard screamed in pain as the Zergling's talons and jaws ripped into him, a quick spell knocked the alien away and another saw him teleport away. Wagnard was then forced to suffer even more pain as the curse inflicted on him took his toll as he healed himself.

Barely alive, Wagnard collapsed unconscious from the sheer amount of pain he was suffering, but he would survive… for the moment.

Abathur screeched in annoyance as his prey escaped before he could finish it, but the Zergling climbed on his master after he dropped to the ground. Once the Zerg and Elf were set, Xapferey then flew to The Forest of No Return to meet with Deedlit's family.

_Two days later _

_Entrance of Forest of No Return_

"**Are you ready my love?"** Xapferey asked.

"Yes Xapferey, let's go," Deedlit opened a new and different portal through the woods and they disappeared through.

A/N: BAM, how's that for a chapter? Next time, on Chronicles of the Draconic Knight… More surprises to come, and a wedding as you're probably expecting. Big surprises coming next and one question you're probably asking yourself, who is XAS? (IF you do know the answer, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF).


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: **Bolded speech **is Xapferey in his Dragon form or speaking Draconic.

Chapter 10: An eternal union

The Dragon and Elf walked through into the Forest of no Return, the Dragon more at ease in the forest now that he was now supposedly immortal. The Dragon the noticed a flock of little glowing spirits flowed around him, the tiny yellow spirits giggled and flew off again.

**"What were those?"** Xapferey asked slightly perplexed by spirits he had not seen the last time he was here. Deedlit's smile grew wider and her eyes practically glowed with joy at the news.

"Those were the time spirits of the outer forest and they can only be seen by immortal beings like Elves or Dragons."

"**Ah, so we're heading to the inner forest obviously, will this form do or should I change back?"**

"Your Dragon form, or true form whatever you wish to call it. We are going to be honest and you can demonstrate your power to take alternate form. "

**"As you wish Deedlit," **Xapferey said as he followed his love despite the fact he towered over her by 7 feet. Deedlit looked up before she shook her head and shared a commiserating look with Abathur.

"Just watch your head Xapferey."

**"I should be fine, the bloodrite altered my mind so that I can understand how to move all my body properly including muscles I never had before," **the Dragon said as he swished his tail to emphasize his point.

"You never told me what it was like under the bloodrite."

**"And I never will if I can help it," **the Dragon replied his tone hard to close the subject while Deedlit turned to look at him in surprise at his tone and response. **"It was not a pleasant experience, and I will leave it at that my love." **

Deedlit sighed and nodded at the gold Dragon as they continued on their way through the forest. Soon the forest changed as the two passed from empty forest pathways into a sprawling city. Many Elves stopped to stare at the pair as they walked forwards. Xapferey's ears could hear the Elves speaking in their language and the tones seemed positive even if he couldn't understand the words. Deedlit smiled at Xapferey reassuringly as they continued onwards toward a very elegant palace built into a large tree.

'**Here we go… trust in yourself, trust Deedit. I must not fear, fear is the mind killer,' **Xapferey thought to himself as he brought his emotions behind his mental shields and controlled them.

"We'll be fine, my parents have respected many of my decisions, and their only concern would likely have been if you were mortal. But since that is no longer an issue, and the time spirits accepted you both times you entered the forest."

**"Well that removes some of my worries then."**

"Worrywart," she teased causing the Dragon to grumble a little under his breath. Deedlit then smiled at her parents as they looked at the two, and the four moved to greet each other. Xapferey bowed his head in a respectful motion, as his current form didn't allow him to bow easily. "Mother, father this is Xapferey."

**"Your** **Highnesses." **

"You are a plainswalker," Deedlit's father said simply, though Xapferey knew he should not be surprised considering he knew that Deedlit's parents were at least 7,000.

**"Yes I am, would that be a problem?"** Xapferey asked.

"No, I was confirming a suspicion, the forest has told me of your coming, twice in fact, the spirits are pleased by you young Dragon, but come tell us the reason you are here with my daughter."

**"We are here to seek your approval, as I wish to marry Deedlit." **

"An answer I was somewhat expecting, I do assume being a plainswalker you are a different type of Dragon, one that can control its form."

**"Yes I can, truthfully I was human once but I made the change, bringing back old bloodlines to the forefront being the last of my family. I did this to be with your daughter if you would allow me the honor and privilege of calling her my wife." **

"Show us please," Deedlit's mother requested. Deedlit gave a slight nod to Xapferey reassuring him more before he transformed and his old form returned, though he kept his eyes gold to show his changed heritage.

"No spells, just an innate power, interesting, what color were the spirits as you entered the forest for the second time?" Deedlit's mother asked Xapferey.

"They were yellow milady."

"Well that is one thing she need not worry about, come, dine with us tonight and we shall discuss more. Though that is an interesting creature beside you, what is it?"

"Abathur is a Zergling, a smaller subtype of the Zerg race, I summoned one to be my familiar and he has served very nicely," Abathur purred slightly and slowly approached the queen for her to get a better look at him.

"A fierce creature to be sure and a wise choice for a companion on the battlefield," Deedlit's father praised lightly. "Come," Xapferey was led to a guest room in the palace by a servant. Once in privacy he changed into his dignified outfit that he had worn for the ball in Valis before and began feeding the Zergling and preparing himself mentally for a point in Lodoss that he had little prior knowledge of. The same servant came and guided him to the private dining hall four hours later.

Xapferey was seated across from Deedlit's parents with her beside her. Deedlit was dressed in another clean dress similar to the one she normally wore under her armor, Deedlit nodded slightly to herself, she realized that Xapferey wanted to impress her parents by showing that he was well off and able to provide for her.

"Xapferey, our daughter has told us much about you and has eased many of our reservations, but my people would be somewhat concerned by your choice to begin a new realm… nearness of humans to the borders would put some ill at ease."

"I can understand the reservations your Highness," Xapferey said to Deedlit's father "but I am considering what is to be best for the people I will be ruling over, both humans and through Deedlit, the Elves. I understand as immortals such leadership would not come lightly. Nor would I seek to rule the Elves if it meant costing Deedlit both of you. I know the pain of losing parents very well and I hope it is a pain I can spare her for the future. If Deedlit wished, we would lead either a simple life or a life of finery, my runecrafting skills are highly sought after and many realms would pay well to retain my services. If Deedlit wished it of me I would give her the world your Highnesses."

"Well said, I must admit that hearing of your… progressive attitudes did surprise me, it also pleases me to hear," he paused to think for a moment as they ate in silence. "Normally we would insist on a longer courtship as a courtship of nearly a year is considered unusually fast in Elven terms. But I can see the trust and love in Deedlit's eyes and I have been appraised on your own situation for your new realm."

Deedlit's father paused to stare at his wife and she nodded.

"Yes, Xapferey, you are an excellent choice for Deedlit, the spirits and forest approve of you to be one of us; and so do we, you may marry Deedlit after your circlet is complete and so you will rule when we decide to step down."

Xapferey was not a man easily shocked but the ease and acceptance had thrown him off and could not hide all of it.

"Come now Xapferey, my parents are extremely powerful shamans and they listen to the flows of the spirits and the forest is hard to impress."

"I thank you your Highnesses for these monumental gifts you have given. I do respect Elven traditions, and I would request that you allow me my traditions as well, I was born a human, and so I would retain some of their traditions as well. It would be a great honor if Deedlit were to wear my mother's engagement and wedding rings."

"You are uniting the Human and Elf worlds, it is a fine tradition to keep."

"Then I would do this properly," Xapferey went down on one knee in front of Deedlit. "Deedlit, since you came into my life, you have shown me what love is again. You bring light to my world my love… Will you do me the greatest honor and be my wife?"

"Yes Xapferey," Deedlit said with a wide smile as she let him put the beautiful platinum band tipped by a modest emerald and gave him a hug. Deedlit's parents were looking on with wide smiles as the king gestured to Xapferey.

"Come walk with me Xapferey we shall leave them to their plans."

"As you wish," Xapferey said simply and respectfully as his sharp eye picked up a few guards following at a distance where they could quickly respond but remain out of earshot for Elves.

"I can guess what you are thinking… that we, a race that outlives humans by millennia are moving faster than normal. This is correct; normally courtships between immortals are far longer than humans. We do have the time after all."

"Indeed, we do have that advantage over them."

"Now it does not mean that we are better than them, there are Elves who allow such arrogance to blind them, but after so long I do believe that I have acquired some wisdom over my long life. But consider this young Xapferey, would Deedlit have allowed you into our home if you were a darker man?" Seeing what the king was getting at, Xapferey shook his head.

"No I think she would have either tried to escape or kill me if I were such a threat."

"Indeed, and the forest would have acted before now. We Elves are very much in tune with the spirits and the Forest beyond, and despite that sad event during your first crossing… I did not know what it was you saw then, but I could sense the powerful emotions it unveiled in you. I can assure you, that if it were Deedlit and you alone in that crossing, the forest would have had a much gentler and soothing reaction to you."

"That does help you majesty, forgive me for not quite entirely understanding the speed of your permission to marry Deedlit."

"Xapferey, Deedlit did inform us of what she saw of your world and you are sill relatively new to magic despite your rapid learning. I can understand your slight reticence over understanding. Allow me to clarify further. As before, we Elves are so connected to the world around us, we are sensitive to the reactions of the spirits especially those of our homeland and of the forest itself. For a then and now once human to earn its and the approval of the spirits is unheard of. Your aura is so different to Lodoss that they can sense a powerful change. Change you will bring to us and I consider myself a good reader of people… my age and experience with others does aid in that as you can imagine." Xapferey hummed and nodded in agreement. "Now then I can sense you have secrets, but they are not harmful to us now."

"In a way your Highness."

"If you wish to tell me?"

"I'm hesitant because it might bring change that I am not prepared for."

"I'm certain that things have changed far already."

"Between us in confidence then?"

"Yes, though why not Deedlit?"

"Because I feel such knowledge would scare her… I do intend to tell her, but for her, knowing how close events came to total destruction of all…" Xapferey trailed off.

"Kardis then?" The king asked with raised eyebrows at the young Dragon.

"That obvious?" The king nodded in response. "The Marmo sorcerer Wagnard would have sought to use Deedlit as a sacrifice to raise her once more."

The king drew breath in shock as he stopped.

"Is she still in danger?"

"I believe not, Kardis required a specific time and place for the ritual… With Wagnard recovering from near lethal magical wounds inflicted by Abathur and the curse that causes him to suffer excruciating soul rendering pain every time he attempts magic, the time for the ritual will have come and passed. These times are usually rare and highly specific, such an attempt would occur either once or once ever 1000 years, or have some sort of ridiculous conditions. "

"Such as?" The king asked in a wryly amused tone.

"The birth of the 9th female child to a mother whose father was born under a Dragon during the 9th day of the 12th month of the year during the sign of the snake and a birthmark of a hammer… like I said, ridiculous conditions." Xapferey said in a tone that clearly mocked prophesies. The king chuckled with Xapferey at the absurdity

"That would be indeed a sight to see if all such conditions were met," the king said agreeing at the unlikely scenario.

"I was not being serious with those conditions," Xapferey said in a wryly amused tone. "I honestly have no idea on the matter. The subject of prophesies and self-fulfilling ones I rate at a slightly lower headache than the subject of time travel and timelines… But, you can guess at my … foreknowledge, and there were two plotlines, one seemed like a rewrite after a certain point if you will. But life finds a way, and since I have averted the first… crisis, the second will be harder because of my changes and the fact that direct intervention may not be entirely wise due to diplomatic matters."

"Indeed not, but you have plans to stop it."

"Yes, by any means necessary."

"I would agree with your assessment on such matters."

The two finished their walk and allowed Xapferey and Deedlit to share a walk of their own. Though the two were escorted by tradition, though the escort hung back as well to offer them some privacy.

"That was easier than I expected, far easier," Xapferey commented.

"You were yourself Xapferey, you are a good man, and the fact that you went through the bloodrite for me speaks wonders. You underwent such a radical change, risking your own life in the process… don't lie, I know enough of your magic to know that you could have killed yourself if you weren't strong enough."

"I won't lie, but it was a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation."

"Well I do not know if I should thank or rip Ashram apart," Deedlit growled.

"Why not both?" Xapferey suggested with a teasing grin. "Although that was much more bloodthirsty than I was expecting of you my dear."

Deedlit shrugged. "That may be so, but if someone threatens the person that I love… well then they will find this Elf a foe that is surprisingly 'bloodthirsty'. I see it as defending the one I love will all my might as I'm sure you can agree."

"Indeed my love, indeed."

The two broke apart for the day while the royal jeweler approached Xapferey. It was tradition for male Elves or the few male non-Elf citizens that had been allowed to join their society to use their birthstone for their circlet gem. An aquamarine gemstone was placed in the circlet. The headband for the male circlets were somewhat thicker than those of the females giving the gem a slightly more masculine look, though tradition of the High Elves had them swapping circlets did negate that to an extent.

Xapferey watched the process and began mentally filing everything he learned. Gems were used to help power and anchor magical wards, so learning how to craft and cut gems would help with that. Something he would have to speak to Ghim about on his return provided the Dwarf joined them. Xapferey had spent his time watching Elves move about in their lives being the youngest, and him knowing about it; Xapferey was unsurprised when he didn't see any Elves younger than his betrothed.

Finally, Xapferey was led to the altar for the wedding ceremony. As he waited, Deedlit's father came to him with his circlet as the disguised Dragon put it on his forehead .

"I realize that it is early, but in time I will hope you see me as a father figure Xapferey, and some day call me father as we are family now. Till then in private, you may call my wife and me by name, my name is Camtheas. Her name is Elanati, she and I agreed on this so you need not worry, something Deedlit told me is that you do fret frequently."

"I suppose I do," Xapferey said with a wry grin.

"I can understand your hesitance over accepting new parental figures, being a human adult as you were… and considering the tragic loss of your own, but I want you to smile my son. Today is a new day, a day to be merry and share in the joys of a new life."

"I agree, you know I sought no title with my actions, only Deedlit's love."

"Those best suited for power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well." (1)

"Small wonder why I despised politics in my old lands," Xapferey said as he locked the painful memories behind double layered mental shields as he focused on his approaching wife to be and her mother Elanati as he stood with Camtheas,

Deedlit's eyes lit up when she saw Xapferey at the alter, the Elf princess wished she could move faster to join her lover but the elegant dress prevented quick movements. In Xapferey's eyes, Deedlit looked so stunning, her beauty seemed more radiant to the young Dragon as she joined him at the alter.

The Elf Priest then began the ceremony using a mixture of Elf and some human traditions as he had some contact with humans and their traditions many millennia ago (2). The Priest picked up the two rings and spoke to the couple "Life is a never-ending circle. Is it not fitting that a circle shall serve as a symbol of a life lived in never-ending love?" The Priest then gestured slightly, "As you place this ring upon the finger of your chosen love speak the words that shall bind you to each other mind, body, and soul in the Unity of the Life bond." The priest was referring to the empathic bond shared by Elf kind Xapferey guessed, he knew enough about Elves of Lodoss to understand that much. Deedlit then per tradition placed first her Elven circlet on Xapferey's forehead, and then she put his ring on his finger and began her vows to him.

"I, Deedlit, take thee, Xapferey, to my hand, heart, and my spirit, at the setting of the sun, and the rising of the stars. Nor shall death part us, for in the fullness of time, we shall be born again, at the same time, and in the same place as each other, and we shall meet and know and remember and love again." (2)

"Deedlit my love. I promise to honor you in every way, mind body and soul we shall share. From this life to the next I will cherish and love you. I promise to be kind, honest, patient and forgiving with you my dear soul. I will be your partner and equal in all things, from children to whatever your heart desires. "

The priest nodded and he began the final blessings (2) "As the grass of the fields and the trees of the woods bend together under the pressures of the storm, so too must you both bend when the wind blows strong. But know that as quickly as the storm comes, so equally quickly may it leave. Yet as you both stand strong in each other's strength, so shall you receive strength. Together you are one; apart you are nothing. Know that no two people can be exactly alike. No more can any two people fit together, perfect in every way. There will be times when it will be hard to give and to love, but then see your reflection as in a woodland pool, when the image you see looks sad and angered, then it is time for you to smile and to love, for it is not fire that puts out fire. In return will the image in the pool smile and love. So change your anger for love, and tears for joy, it is no weakness to admit a wrong; more it is strength and a sight for learning. Let the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and these our brothers and sisters bear witness that Xapferey and Deedlit, have been joined together in the sight of the Elements and spirits of the Forest. And may they bless them, as we do ourselves, and so shall the two be conjoined as one mind, one heart, and one soul together in peace and love through the union of Life Bond now and forever." (2)

Xapferey then began his part towards the bond as he kissed his wife with her joining a moment later, Deedlit's parents smiled widely at the two and Xapferey joined the family at a feast to celebrate his marriage to Deedlit.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur for the young Dragon, as dancing with Deedlit, the feast and celebrations mixed together in his mind. It was only after when he and Deedlit were about to enter her chambers together that he realized that the evening was over and the night beginning.

_Two days later_

"Come to me young Xapferey, bring your wife. Come and meet me and receive my last gifts to you."

The pull dragged at both Deedlit and Xapferey as the two gathered their clothes to obey the commands of the mysterious benefactor.

A/N:

(1) Quote from Deathly Hallows, I would say it's in the realm of fair usage and the perfect advice an Elf of 7000+ years to give… but still marking it out for those who might recognize it without the mention and complain.

(2) Semi and full quotes and paraphrasing from angelfire rpg2 / vortexshadow/ ritual . html about High Elf rituals… I'm good but I'm not THAT good and I do need some help in the matter, and secondly school has started again and time is short once more… hence quoting in this case, but I acknowledge the original yet altered source.

Ok, lots of quotes I know, but quite frankly I wanted to get this chapter done and not dither for another two months because I can't bloody think of anything... this chapter aside from any changes my beta may make, is as good as its going to get.


	12. Chapter 11

A/N Minor Aliens crossover... Very minor, don't own anything beyond my evolutions and their altered abilities and empire.

These interlude chapters between OVA and Chronicles of the Heroic Knight I dedicate to my wonderful college History teacher Dr. R.F (for privacy sake). Her Through the Middle Ages classes were both a pleasure and inspiration for me to write this story and her advice on medieval life is greatly appreciated. Rest in peace Dr. F, and thank you for everything.

Chapter 11: The Benefactor and home.

The couple quickly left their chambers fully dressed as they went to meet the powerful voice Xapferey recognized as his benefactor. The moment they left, there was a moment of vertigo, and the two were somewhere else.

In front of them stood a large being, 26 feet tall, with digitigrade legs and long arms. Bony hands ended in long sharp claws. The head was elongated and massive with a bony ridge stretching behind it almost like a natural crown. The body was covered in a tough exoskeleton yet seemed capable of making rapid and precise movement. The tail was long and skeletal ending in a large barbed blade. Unlike the predecessors of the creature before it, this one had a pair of gold eyes staring at the two.

"What are you?" Deedlit asked causing both the Dragon and being to smile.

"**He is a Cilarista, a great being evolved from a predator race they call Drythons… others called them Xenomorphs and they are much older than many would believe.** " The Dragon, now in his true form was both shorter and smaller than the great and powerful Cilarista.

"Indeed young Dragon. I am here to provide the last gifts to you and some more as a wedding present… oh and my belated congratulations."

"Oh? Not that I am complaining, but what would you have helped my husband?" Deedlit asked.

"You've probably never heard of theories of many worlds or alternate dimensions."

"Would this be like planes-walking?" Deedlit asked earning a wide toothy smile from the great being.

"Exactly Deedlit… my interpretation is that in our lives every choice that can be or is ever made is explored in alternate timelines or creates alternate dimensions as they spawn."

"...All right?"

"**What he means, is there could have been one where we never met, met in my world, or we born the opposite gender… or born differently altogether and more powerful than I am now**."

"Oh?" Xapferey raised his eye ridges at the Cilarista in emphasis. "Oh…" Deedlit trailed off. "He's you?"

"**What I could have been under different circumstances."**

"He's right my dear, it's why I've been helping him with gifts and the occasional bit of advice, speeding up his acquisition of magic and alterations until he is what he is now. But to clarify I am Xapferey Alecnor Sharnoras… and this home and the contents within are my gift to you. You'll find conveniences modern, medieval and futuristic for your aid and enjoyment; trust me you will need them. As for the futuristic things…from your perspective mind, they are not that advanced to me."

"**Anything short of a dronic particle reactor is primitive to you Cilarista. But thank you for everything and good luck.**"

"And you young ones… be well."

The great Cilarista god vanished, and with him the magic hiding their new home. The two stopped in shock at the massive manor. The front gates swung open to the outer courtyard where an image of a woman in dark robes appeared. Her eyes were a glowing purple and her skin pale. Her dark hair went down to her mid back.

"Welcome my lord and lady to your home. I am Malika Shadowshifter; your AI caretaker, protector, and general advisor."

"What?" Deedlit asked.

"**She's in essence a technological spirit attached to the home and can manifest where she pleases as long as special devices are in place correct?"**

"Perfectly correct milord. I maintain the defenses; monitor the wards and the home itself. I am also your guide to the home until you learn all aspects of it yourselves. If you would follow me please, I will guide you through the home."

Malika let the two through the high walled and thick gated courtyards. Both were grassy with a small paved road to the greeting hall, which doubled as a throne room for the royals. The gates were modern sliding gates that slid into the walls as they opened and shut. As the trio walked through the greeting hall, Malika demonstrated the various hidden weapons around the home. The defenses consisted of automated sentries of many sorts and calibers, force field emitters and magical wards that now acknowledged Xapferey as their master including the knowledge of how to maintain, update and repair the magical defenses.

"Even at their thinnest, the walls of your home are four feet thick of solid enduriniam. The likelihood of any piercing such material with any conventional methods on Lodoss is unlikely at best milord."

"How tough is it?" Deedlit asked Malkia.

"50 times more resilient than steel of a similar amount." (1)

"Oh…" Deedlit trailed off, that was much stronger than any material known to Lodoss.

"**There are other materials out there that are far stronger my love… Enduriniam is normally extremely rare to the point of near non-existent but for a race as powerful as that of my greater self, it's as common as the air we breathe." **

"Well said milord," Malika agreed. "Continuing onwards we do have several guest rooms for important visitors and they also include antechambers with attached servants quarters as required. There is a conservatory with a sunroof just in front of the main guest rooms. Have no fears, the sunroof is made of a transparent version of enduriniam."

Malika then lead them through the western parts of the home and showed them the rooms she had described. There were four major guest rooms total, empty for the moment. A decent hospital and small church were just to the south and west of the conservatory.

To the south of the guest rooms were sizable barracks with stairs to the walkways over the greeting halls and the two courtyards. The barracks stretched several floors both above and below ground with enough room for a garrison of 7500 troops. There was also a sizable smithy in the troop complex as well as an armory.

In the eastern parts of the home were the hidden garage, stables that connected to the outer courtyard, the royal tower, personal storehouse and cellar of the Manaweaver family. The two entered the rune-crafting room in the basement of the tower. On the door were 3 lights; green, yellow and red. Malika explained the lights were indicators of how safe it was to enter. Green was safe, yellow meant caution, and red meant dangerous and not to enter. In the corner of the rune-crafting room was a smaller room, a shimmering red field covered the doorway.

"That is the emergency disposal room, the force field automatically is activated the moment someone enters the room. As you milord will be the most likely one to be working here, you'll understand what I mean when I say the field is semipermeable."

"**What she means is that with the field active things can go into that room, but not out."**

"Exactly milord, if you were to hypothetically screw up a rune-craft and it were about to overload, you could throw it into that room and have it detonate safely."

"Might save your eyebrows this time," Deedlit muttered though both her companions heard her. One was mildly amused; the other was both amused and slightly irked.

"Moving on to the tower. There is a barracks at the base of the stairs for your royal guard when you form it. As of now I am part of the royal guard as it is my job to protect the home and its occupants. The second floor will serve as a council chamber once a council has been formed. The third floor is currently uninhabited; the fourth floor holds the chambers of Lord Nethalus and Lady Pirotess. The fifth floor is uninhabited at this moment as well, these other floors and chambers are for your future children when they grow old enough to warrant their own space. The sixth floor is your personal armory and the seventh floor is a watch post currently being overseen by automatic sentries. "

"I see, thank you Malika, my wife and I will see our apartments ourselves."

"As you wish milord, and Lord Sharnoras wanted me to inform you that one door in your chamber leads to his last major gift and that if you need medical attention anywhere in the grounds of the home, the EMH will respond to the usual summoning command."

"That will be all, thanks again."

"Pleasure to serve milord, milady."

The two watched as Malika disappeared and the two entered their spacious apartments and stopped at the sights within. The apartment tastefully blended modern and medieval with items from both eras including wall outlets. Xapferey was surprised despite having expecting the modern conveniences. He couldn't help wondering what powered the home and the electronic defenses.

"Well this was certainly a grand gift for us, even if this Xapferey Sharnoras is another version of you, but why would he be so helpful for us as well?" Deedlit asked.

"Because as far as I know he cares about you greatly for his own reasons. But let's more focus on what we're given then why he does what he does. The fact of the matter is that with this manor, castle, whatever you wish to call it we have saved years alone and we have a safe place to begin our realm my queen. The courtyards are fertile and perfect for sowing crops for the first few seasons and in a perfectly guarded environment. Some would call it ridiculous for a start…" Deedlit gently hushed Xapferey with a finger to his lips.

"I understand my love, we all have our projects to look over and a few weeks to get things in order before our people arrive. Now let's have a look around our chambers before we look over the property in entirety."

The bed was a four-poster king sized bed with a modern mattress, surrounded by curtains for privacy, though open at the moment. Near the bed was a sunken area filled with soft foam, obviously a bed for Xapferey's true form. A nearby door lead to a walk in closet filled with clothing of all sorts and for all occasions both formal and casual. Xapferey was pleased to see more modern clothing included; he'd missed clothing clothing with the conveniences of zippers and fewer layers involved or required. There were also places for various weapons, though upkeep facilities were on the floor above according to a note left by Malika.

The bathroom was a welcome sight for the young Dragon; both the often very primitive medieval facilities and the forests and other wild lands he had traveled during his time in Lodoss bothered him more than he wanted to admit. He explained how things worked to his wife and she was rather impressed at the conveniences offered by the modern facilities.

Bookshelves and a table with chairs surrounding it took up much of the south part of the room including a set of recliners and couches. The rest of the room was devoted to a private gym and sparring area.

As Deedlit looked over the various things she smiled at her husband and as she walked towards him, she noticed another door leading to a balcony overlooking the inner courtyard. The door was thick and built so that there was no way to open it from the outside, though several physical locks on the inside (including a crossbar) and several magical wards addressed even that possibility.

Another door Deedlit noticed had strange locks. She knew enough about machines through seeing Xapferey's laptop and phone to recognize a keypad and a fingerprint scanner; Xapferey having explained and shown fingerprints to her months ago.

"What's through there?" Deedlit asked.

"Let's find out." A moment later, Xapferey had the door opened and walked through a strange doorway and down a hallway and through another door. Malika was waiting for the two as Xapferey gazed in awe at what was before him.

"Lord Sharnoras sends his regards along with his last gift and he hopes you have enough discretion to not use it on Lodoss."

"What is it?" Deedlit asked as she stared at the strange and powerful machine.

"A starship, modified for your usage. Delta Flyer class with assault modifications."

"Huh?" Deedlit asked not understanding entirely.

"The ships you know sail he seas, Deedlit, this ship sails the stars. A machine more advanced than any I have seen," Xapferey said

"Oh… but you will not use it on Lodoss?"

"Not unless I have any other choice in the matter, this ship is a absolute last resort."

"You might want to prepare for the arrival of your people your majesties, I can sense they are a week away from joining us."

"Yes indeed, and I can only imagine why we would need such a machine…" Xapferey said before he muttered so quietly Deedlit didn't hear "and I shudder at what we will face with it."

A/N: That's 11 done, the home is advanced in many ways,yes but the defenses can only be relied on in a siege. None of the defenses can fire onto targets in other lands. I had to retcon it because the original plans did not have Xapferey and Deedlit as king and queen so I needed to change things in the home to take that into account.

As for the Delta Flyer ship, it will NOT play a major part in the Lodoss section of the story I can assure you, its weapons will never be fired on ANY part of Lodoss short of Kardis herself. It is for the major crossover section later on.

As for what it is, well.

Delta Flyer assault class – named Lodoss Flyer preliminarily

92 feet long

**Protections **

1-meter enduriniam polarized ablative hull armor

Multiphasic shields

Ablative armor generator

**Weapons **

10 phaser arrays (multi- coverage)

6 pulse phaser cannons (forward) (as Defiant class)

60 point defense phaser emitters

3 forward assault class photon torpedo tubes (each can launch up to 3 simultaneously)

2 aft assault class photon torpedo tubes

**Other modified systems **

2 matter/antimatter reactors

Enhanced warp drive (max 8) (Cruising speed 7)

Holodeck systems - max 5

Crew quarters for 11


	13. Chapter 12

A/N I'm not a historian so if I make a mistake tell me where I went wrong and how to correct it and please CITE your sources, I'm relying on textbooks recommended by a person with a PHD and specialization in this field.

Secondly I know I broke canon in a big way. Parn is not going to be the Free Knight, Ghim's alive, Woodchuck safe, oh Fahn and Beld too, no Ashram and Pirotess and for the longest time doesn't it seem one-sided for the longest time? Their relationship seems more developed off camera than on. Don't worry she'll get more screen time as will Nethalus in these interlude chapters.

Chapter 12: Starting a society

Xapferey was sparring with Deedlit while waiting for their people to arrive. Having used the sensors on the Lodoss Flyer, Xapferey had been able to spot the approaching migration of a whopping 15,000 people, laden down with wagons full of supplies. The young Dragon had seen that Flaim and Valis had loaned some forces to escort many of the refugees and other citizens to the new lands and had helped provide supplies to their young new ally.

Focusing his mind back onto the spar, Xapferey advanced on his wife. Their blades flashed madly in a blistering storm of parries, feints, blocks and attacks. Deedlit hopped back and held her left hand up in the air signaling a break.

"How are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Xapferey I can feel your emotions, like I know you feel mine and honestly your cycle of emotional control and the magnitude of them scares me a little."

"I know, I based my styles on a fictional style of a supposedly fictional weapon called a lightsaber. I based my techniques on the third, fifth and seventh lightsaber styles, primarily drawing on the third and seventh; it's named Juyo or the Ferocity form. The fact of the matter is that Juyo should be studied if one boils with rage but also have the ability to control that rage at the same time. My assault techniques are designed to keep hammering the opponent with blow until they are off balanced and make a mistake. I am able to focus my magic inwards to aid in my reactions, agility and strength, keeping in mind Juyo's demand for high-energy staccato burst movements. It gives me great advantages against lighter swords using cuts and fencing techniques like your style or Pirotess'."

"Because you are heavier than us and if you can corner us then it's easy to wear us Elves down, I've learned that against you."

"It's not my fault I'm mostly muscle," Deedlit smirked at him for a moment before sheathing her rapier. The two removed their sparring equipment and then went to the table to eat and discuss the future of their realm. "The first things I see that are needed to be considered are crops to be sown, we might have one growing season before winter. Depending on how much Flaim and Valis sent us that are gifts or loans we will have to consider foreign debt as well. I refuse to run a government with a deficit."

Deedlit nodded though she was not entirely sure at what Xapferey was feeling so annoyed or hostile at. The Dragon sighed before he put his sparring equipment away before he shook himself and smiled at his wife.

"Come, I'm going to show you something you'd never experienced before… and myself for that matter but I know of."

Deedlit followed Xapferey down the hallway to the Lodoss Flyer and watched as it opened with Malika appearing on the ramp to greet and guide them.

"Let's take her out for a spin around the system and nearby ones if they are in range at maximum warp."

Deedlit followed Xapferey as she stared at all the various advanced controls. Xapferey sat at the pilot seat with Deedlit sitting beside him and she watched as he closed his eyes and mentally ran every scene he had seen involving the controls of shuttlecraft including that of the Flyer.

The Young Dragon then pressed the various controls, thanking the ease of the LCARS systems. The Flyer's systems soon activated and the roof retracted as Xapferey looked over the simple yet customized control panel.

"Malika what's the deal with this cloaking device?"

"No shields, but the ablative armor does work, note the armor does allow for your weapon array to function as normal rather than the original version with torpedoes only."

"Well that's good news I suppose, what's the nearest star?"

"2 light years, 48 hours round trip at maximum warp."

"Let's go somewhere where we can test the weapons safely."

"Xapferey?" Deedlit asked.

"Deedlit I always wanted to fly among the stars, but I lacked the means and opportunity."

"I take it space flight was not as common for your people?"

"No, and very expensive, in terms of gold based on prices when I left… and the current spacecraft in usage, about 401,786 gold pieces rounded up… that's for just one flight and they ran no more than 9 flights into space a year… converting to the Canadian dollar it costs 450 million dollars."

"Oh…" Deedlit trailed off at the thought of such money being spent yearly, it was more than she could imagine. (1)

"Yes, which is why I am grateful for something that was in essence built in 2375 which is more than 300 years than it currently is on my world, not taking time differences into account."

"Ah," The Elf said as she watched the sky turn from blue to black as they flew, Deedlit was in awe the entire time, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "It's beautiful," She said as Xapferey turned the ship to see the planet.

"It truly is an awe inspiring sight, now then let's try this…" Xapferey was pepared to engage the warp drive when Malika called out,

"Alert transwarp aperture detected… it's Borg," Deedlit watched all the blood drain from her husband's face and he clutched his chest, she could sense bone chilling fear erupt along the bond. Xapferey suddenly pressed buttons and the ship shuddered as ablative armor deployed around it before female giggling caught his attention.

"I was joking," Malika said with an evil smirk as Xapferey glared at her while breathing hard and clutching his chest as his fear turned to embarrassment and anger.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEARTS ATTACK?" The disguised Dragon roared.

"Oh come on, you've got three, what's one?" She teased.

"Grrrr…. Computer reverse Malika's speech subroutines and lock them."

"YEH!"

"That was beyond mean, you really are evil… pull this stunt EVER again I'll decompile your matrix kilobyte by kilobyte over the course of a thousand years."

"Taht devresed I esoppus I."

"I take it she pulled a very nasty trick on you?" Deedlit asked glaring at Malika while smirking at her speaking backwards.

"Yes she did, and now she'll have to speak backwards for the day unless she'd prefer if I deleted her speech subroutines?" Malika shook her head emphatically. "Good, now kindly make yourself scarce, I'm just going to take this back home since you ruined the mood… " Malika nodded suitably chastened. Xapferey turned the ship around and the two went back home.

"Yrros m'I."

"That was a cruel joke, any other time it might have been funny, don't ever do that again… computer restore Malika's speech subroutines."

"Again I'm sorry milord, if it makes you feel better, the true Malika pulled a similar stunt on Lord Sharnoras."

"That kind of does make me feel better, now we're going to go prepare, so make yourself scarce.'

The hologram bowed and winked out of existence after the ship was parked in its shipyard once more.

"What was that all about?"

"The Borg are a terrifying race in search of perfection, they assimilate every being they view as furthering that goal and ignores everything that isn't a threat. They work by injecting microscopic machines so tiny they are on the same size as your blood cells. Soon every trace of individuality is erased and you are linked to the hivemind, everything you once were was gone. A pale skinned cyborg, as all your hair falls out, an eye replaced by machinery and even an arm."

Deedlit shivered in response before her husband calmed her down and they went back to their apartments. Xapferey sat down and plugged his computer into one of the newly provided outlets before he began pacing.

"What are you thinking?" Deedlit asked.

"Just making sure that because of our small realm, we could be overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers eventually even here. As such I'm planning on completely redoing our military including equipment, and doctrines. Once complete I intend to have us go from a junior member in the Flaim-Valis-Draconia alliance to the prime power of the alliance. To do that is going to require massive amounts of innovation."

"Something of which you are the best at my love," Deedlit said hugging Xapferey from behind.

"Well if you don't mind my dear I'm going to get some plans started."

"Mind if I watch?"

"Not at all computer display an image of a repeating crossbow similar to Van Helsing, remove the gas canister," a 3-D image of said crossbow appeared hovering in midair in front of Xapferey. "Suggest mechanical enhancements capable of being built in current medieval era without revealing further advanced technology. If all else fails, animation and linking runes will serve in their place."

Deedlit watched as the crossbow became changed, Draconic runes scribed on it to replicate the effects of machinery that Xapferey claimed were beyond their means at the moment.

Deedlit watched as Xapferey created six types of crossbows. One he labeled as the standard Repeater-class, the second was the Assault Repeater, the third he labeled as the Longshot. The fourth crossbow was much smaller than the rest, and was to act as a sidearm. The Fifth was smaller than the standard Repeater and used the same ammunition as the sidearm, and the sixth was larger than the Assault Repeater, using the same ammo as the Repeater and her larger variants. Once they were designed he began typing notes that she could see on the side of each weapon. (1-6)

After reading through the various designs, Deedlit was curious, as most of the terms she knew well enough with her learning about his firearms. Though she was somewhat unsure as o why Xapferey was not making firearms, she was also glad that he was limiting those weapons.

Xapferey and Deedlit retired for the night in their bed, the High Elf could not stop herself from purring at the expensive sheets and high quality mattress. The Dragon smiled at her reaction as he pulled her close before falling asleep.

The next week passed quickly with the new queen and king working on and preparing things for their new realm. In the distance, their people could be seen approaching. An hour later the people began trickling in with eyes wide at the castle. Once they were all assembled in the inner courtyard. Standing over them Xapferey began to speak.

"To my people and allies I welcome you. I am a firm believer in that actions speak louder than words. But I shall begin by saying that I intend to make this a land based on merit and not blood alone. A land of law, safety and security, a land where you will have rights that will be respected and heard fairly in our future courts of law. Many of my ideas will be unusual, but in time their merits will be obvious. Together we shall make this land a haven for all who wish to inhabit it."

There were some cheers from the people below as the people began organizing themselves into various tasks. Some went to gather wood from the nearby normal forest. Others began sowing crops and setting up temporary shelters and structures. Guards began patrolling the castle and setting their belongings into their barracks.

Jebra and Nethalus came up to Xapferey and Deedlit in the royal chambers.

"Milord."

"Xapferey."

"Jebra, I have something for you," Xapferey handed Jebra the ranking shoulder pad he had used originally. "Congratulations General."

"Thank you milord," Jebra saluted Xapferey who returned it. Nethalus and Pirotess were now nobles with the rank of Archduke and part of the royal family of Draconia. Hours later, shelters were set up and many other temporary buildings like stables, blacksmiths, tanners, taverns and the like were seen popping up.

While his people were beginning to build the city of Vancouver, he called his first council. He welcomed Jebra, Ghim, Slayn, Leylia, Woodchuck, and Parn. Nethalus and Pirotess came in a minute later.

Parn however was to observe for now and learn as many ideas discussed here would be considered odd. Xapferey and Deedlit sat at the head of the table. Xapferey passed out a series of pads with writing on them.

"Included on these pages are my preliminary plans for this kingdom. At the front is an index and all the page numbers are labeled in the top right corner. Many of these ideas come from the two countries that I was native to, Canada and the United States of America. These ideas and variants of such are currently in use and many decisions have been used in courts of both lands. I have included a copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and my alterations have been underlined in the relevant sections."

"Milord, this is extensive and forgive me if I am out of place… But there is no possible way we could implement these immediately," Slayn said.

"I am aware of that Slayn, many sections will need time to be implemented and when our courts of law are fully secured, then we shall begin. I am not expecting a all at once miracle my friend, this home was a gift from a powerful ally that has moved on. A wedding gift so he is no longer relevant to the matter. A building is only as strong as its foundations. I asked you here to evaluate the foundations I have come up with. I'm asking for creative criticism, not sycophancy."

"Have you ever thought I would do such a thing?" Slayn asked with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes as he began to peruse the documents along with the others of the new council.

"No my friend, not at all."

"Well I would be happy to accept the offered position of High Mage milord."

"Excellent, there are positions for all of you in there and if you accept, then let's get to work. We have a lot to cover this day."

"Yes Sire," the group said after accepting their positions.

A/N Ugh this chapter is done, below are the various positions held by the council high members. These titles are not firmed yet so if you have alternate suggestions please let me know.

Xapferey &amp; Deedlit – King and Queen

Nethalus &amp; Pirotess – Archduke and duchess

Jebra – 4-star General, Supreme Commander of Armed Forces (Basically the same rank as Darth Vader in Star Wars)

Slayn – Court High Mage

Leylia – Court High Priestess

Ghim – Court High Architect

Woodchuck – Undecided title/position as of this moment though he is part of the council.

Weapons Xapferey is designing

Range is in feet (3 feet in a yard if necessary)

1) Repeater-Class Crossbow (RCC)

Magazine type – Drum, 50 standard bolts

Types of fire – Single, 3 shot burst, full auto

Range – Optimal 40-50 feet, maximum 70

Analogous role – Assault Rifle

2) Assault-Repeater Crossbow (ARC)

Magazine type – Triple drum, 150 standard bolts

Types of fire - 3 shot burst, full auto

Range- Optimal 60-70 feet, maximum 100

Analogous role – Light Machine Gun

3) Longshot Crossbow (LSC)

Magazine type – box magazine, 6 large bolts

Types of fire – Single, bolt-action/runic action (magical runes act as bolt action)

Range – Optimal 80-120, maximum 155

Analogous role – Sniper Rifle

4) Shortshot Crossbow (SSC)

Magazine type – box magazine, 10 micro bolts

Types of fire – Single – Semiauto

Range – Optimal 15-20, max 35

Analogous role – pistol/sidearm

5) (Name WIP) Sub-repeater

Magazine type – double drum, 120 micro bolts

Types of fire- single, 3- shot burst, full auto

Range – Optimal 20-25, max 40

Analogous role – SMG – Submachine gun

6) Super Repeater

Magazine type, belt-fed from box magazine – 500 large bolts

Types of fire – Full auto

Range – Optimal 100-120, max 225

Analogous role – HMG- Heavy Machine gun


	14. Chapter 13

A/N Again bolded speech is Xapferey in his true form.

Feb 8th: My tooth broke; hopefully I can get a dentist appointment quick to solve the issue and fix it… I really REALLY don't need this crap.

Feb 9th, got it fixed, needs a crown… and to make matters worse my plan doesn't cover it *wince* that's 1134$+ out of pocket… yeek and my jaw hurts after the temporary crown. I'm NOT looking forwards to getting the real thing… Well that's next week on Thursday.

Feb 13: Oooh my tooth hurts and I have to be careful as I eat… take this as a sign to take care of your teeth, it hurts and is worrisome as a temporary crown is a fragile cap and can shatter easily enough.

Personally I hate to reuse names for countries in other stories, but if it's my idea and a Dragon that rules it, then it's my right to do so.

There are no Super Repeaters (HMG analogues in the army yet, they are expensive to produce at the moment)

Chapter 13: Treaties and troubles

_8 months after chapter 12_

Xapferey's land had grown strong rapidly over the course of several months. Their armed forces were now over 9,500 in number with the Linebreakers having doubled their force in the interim. The repeating crossbows of various sorts were making their way to the training yards as the regular army began using them.

Army squads consisted of 12 men, 2 were using the new Longshot crossbow, two were using the Assault Repeater (LMG) crossbow and the rest were using the standard repeating crossbow. All were trained to rely on their weapon first, although, the army were provided with blades and trained. They were being taught to rely on their crossbows before resorting to melee combat and to work with their squads on communication.

The communication circlets originally designed by Xapferey and Slain were upgraded and beginning to be interlinked in a HUD system for the armed forces of Draconia. The new systems included connections with their weapons so that the troops could see how much ammunition remained in the current drum or magazine depending on what type of role they had within the squad.

Unlike the regular army, the Linebreakers were mainly assigned the SMG crossbow and/or the Shortshot sidearm. The Linebreakers still relied primarily on teamwork, and only resorted to their ranged weapons during a long charge.

Xapferey looked out at the training with pride, his army was small but very well equipped. Xapferey stepped next to Jebra and they watched for a time.

"What do you think Jebra?"

"They are impressive milord, at times I am a little frightened at their efficiency at dealing death."

"We cannot afford to be lax or stick to traditional ways of combat. Marmo to the south and Allania to the north, with refugees and others streaming into our country slowly...Allania may declare war on us due to their citizens abandoning them for us."

"I know, but it should not be a crime to move for a better life as you are making for us here sire."

"I agree, but there will always be those motivated by jealously, misplaced pride and what have you. We must be ready for them and if we have to break the standard conventions then so be it."

"Wise words Xapferey," Pirotess said from behind him. Jebra gave a short bow of respect to the Dark Elf. "You yourself have said similar when you defended me when I decided to finally shed my disguise those months ago."

"Excuse us Jebra," Xapferey said gently.

"Of course milord, milady," he saluted and departed to oversee some details in person.

"You are family Pirotess, even before I became a Dragon, I would fight for you. Do I need to repeat section 15 of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms for you again?"

"Not at all brother dear, I've heard it often enough."

"What do you need Pirotess?" He asked seeing her unusually hesitant.

"What was my fate?"

"Excuse me?" Xapferey was slightly flabbergasted at the question.

"Nethalus told me the story as much as he could remember, but he was confused as to my fate. He told me you knew as well, so tell me what was my fate?" She pressed.

"Your fate in the… shall we say the non-manipulated timeline was mutable depending on the canonicity of either the… original sequence or the rewrite if you will. The original sequence you fell in love with Ashram and died saving him from Shooting Star's flame breath despite your magic. As for the rewrite, you sailed to another land where Ashram was taken over by a demon… I think, I didn't pay much attention to that post Lodoss sequence, honestly I could feel my brains melting not long into it."

"Fair enough, not like I would even touch Ashram now. What about Deedlit?"

"She and Parn would be together I suppose, in the original she was almost sacrificed to Kardis. As for the rewrite, she was with Parn at the end… but those timelines are obviously defunct."

"Will she be… I suppose not, rituals are to be timed and tricky thing, after what I heard Abathur did to Wagnard, well he'll be healing for a long while."

"Indeed he will, tell me how often did Neth drive you mad?"

"Frequently, he was very impulsive, easily distracted among other things."

"I know, that will not be something he'll grow out of… some issues are permanent."

"Yes indeed, he explained it to me as best he could."

"What else is it Pirotess?"

"Our scouts have caught word of Allania mobilizing a massive force on their southern borders."

"I'm guessing we're likely to be the target."

"A messenger is riding hard for our lands, and it may include a formal declaration of war."

"How many?"

"At least 35,000."

"35 against 9.5… I intend to meet them on the field of battle. The fury of the Linebreakers is already known, but not the fury of our armed forces."

"We have over a month before they reach us and become a problem… are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be, if we fight them here and they manage to win the day, our people will be at risk and everything I worked for will be ruined. I'm going to leave the Linebreakers as a garrison, you and Nethalus are in charge of the council when I leave with Deedlit and Jebra.

"Well then we need to keep training and preparing."

"And we will. Please excuse me, I have some personal projects to oversee."

Pirotess nodded as she went to her husband while Xapferey went from the royal chambers, down to the runecrafting room.

"So is it doable?" Xapferey asked.

"All simulations pan out to a successful project milord, but as you can see this is a project for the longer term. You would need more experience with the right runes and power flows for this one."

"Yes I am aware, never mind the complex formations and connecting runes. This is going to take a decade at best of research before we even get to building the damn thing… Anyways, seal the project and open project MPAA."

A knock on the door caught his and Malika's attention.

"Enter," Xapferey called as Slayn walked in.

"Milord Xapferey."

"Yes Slayn?" Xapferey asked with a mental sigh at his friend.

"Just coming to see if there were any projects you needed assistance with."

"Yes, this one project I could use your help with, and I think we can dispense with the formalities don't you old friend?"

"What ever you prefer… milord," Slayn said with a teasing glint in his eye causing Xapferey to groan in response and aim a playful swat at his friend. "What are we working on here?" Slayn asked as he looked over the strange suit of armor built for a Dragon.

"This is my answer to the larger evil dragons. A suit that combines machinery and runecrafting to be the first suit of powered armor."

"So if Shooting Star or Narse were to attack, you would rely on this suit to aid in driving them off due to the size and power difference?" Slayn asked.

"Correct, the weapon systems I am planning may be a bit beyond your comprehension at times."

"That's fair Xapferey considering what little I've seen of your weapons."

The two worked on the suit and the runes and machines needed to make it run; all the while exploring and discussing weapon options and possible settings of various defensive systems. Hours later the two walked away from a series of prototypes runic plates and mechanical parts.

Another meeting of the royal council saw the arrival of the messenger from Allania delivering a rather condescending, threatening and just plain insulting letter.

"What does it say?" Nethalus asked.

"Oh the usual, blah blah blah, not a king, swear to me or die, questioning my intelligence, my bloodline...oh they did not…" Xapferey's eyes flashed at the insults directed towards his wife. The Dragon ignited the letter with a flare of magic and turned his angry gaze onto the fearful messenger. "I don't believe in killing the messenger. But take these words back to your king. For your insults against my wife you shall suffer pain unending. For your insults against my people and I, penalties will be paid. Throw your pitiful army at me and I will drown you in their blood."

The messenger nodded fearfully at the large Dragon snarling in his face before he all but fled for his horse. Xapferey turned to his council "I will not repeat the insults he directed towards each of you, and especially to either of you Deedlit and Pirotess, but I want you all aware of that old saying. 'Do not anger Dragons for thou go squish when stepped on.'"

The council nodded a bit hesitantly, not used to the viciousness Xapferey was displaying. Although it could have been the fact he was in his true form as well that scared them somewhat.

"Jebra, ready the army for full mobilization, get our people behind the walls and have the Linebreakers in the garrison."

"Yes milord," the General left to oversee preparations. Xapferey went to suit up himself as he intended to make Kadimonos pay for his insults. Deedlit joined Xapferey not long after the meeting ended to join him on the battlefield as befitted the warrior queen she was.

Having been called to full strength for a now aborted war game, the army was already mobilized and ready for battle. So the gates were flung open wide and several thousand troops all well equipped could be seen marching away towards the north. The people behind them were waving in farewell, none were cheering though as they expected that many of their king's army would not be coming home.

For two weeks they marched until they halted at a great plain, ironically on the same field that Xapferey himself arrived on Lodoss. That said Xapferey transformed and signaled his army that he was going to give a speech.

**"My soldiers, my people hear me. Today is the ultimate test of your training, some of you have thought my ideas strange, or wondering how these weapons are honorable or will bring glory. The fact of the matter is there is no honor in warfare. War is an ugly thing, but you fight not for personal glory, but for your homes, your families and your rights. The army coming against us would seek to destroy all that I have built for us. Today we fight for all we hold dear, our homes, our families and our loved ones. Remember your training, trust your friends and fellow soldiers and together we may come home victorious. FOR DRACONIA!" **

"FOR DRACONIA!" The army shouted in response and began chanting "MANAWEAVER! MANAWEAVER! MANAWEAVER!" Before they cheered and began assembling into their formation as the enemy army could be seen in the distance. Heralds were sent to offer Xapferey one more chance to surrender but the Dragon just raised his paw and gave the enemy the finger. Not that they recognized exactly what it meant but the enemy general got the gist of it and began arranging his forces to attack the Dragon

Xapferey stared out at the sizable enemy army and decided to mix things up a little. His forces were built to be more fluid than other medieval armies. He split his army into the various companies of 1000 men under officers of varying ranks as his officer corps was still quite thin.

His forces then began organizing a overlapping defense in depth. The hope was that the enemy could be outflanked by his crossbows as they were hit from multiple directs. Yes it would cut down the amount of focused fire his forces put out, but it meant that they could maneuver and support each other much easier.

Xapferey took to the sky and watched as his forces arranged and set themselves into place, their crossbows armed and ready. At the same time, the Allanians began to move, a regiment of horsemen were galloping around to the side of the battle to begin a heavy flanking assault on his side companies. With that in mind, Xapferey had three companies facing forward against the enemy infantry and two others moving to cover their flank from a possible sweep from the left while he kept his eyes on the cavalry coming from the right.

~~_I'll handle the right, lure in their horsemen on the left,~~_

_~~Yes milord,~~ _The Lt. Colonel in charge of company A replied as he arranged his troops in formation and sent the orders to the other companies. With that being handled as the moment, Xapferey tucked in his wings and dove, flames gathering in his jaws. The troops screamed in fear at the sight of the large Dragon barreling down on them before he unleashed a stream of fire.

Straight from the medieval tales of old, his flame breath cooked many of the knights in their armor as he raked many others with his claws, snatching a few to drop them from a lethal height.

On the left flank, the horsemen galloped around Company B trying to encircle them as company B seemed to ignore them for the moment. Considering the Major of company B was being kept appraised of the situation by companies C and D, he was not worried at the moment as his attention was on the two infantry regiments charging at his lines.

With the Horsemen splitting to attack his rear and company D, The Major of Company B relayed the information and both C and D opened fire on full automatic while he had his forces hose down the charging infantry. The horsemen behind were caught in a murderous crossfire on two sides as the riders and mounts fell from multiple bolts. Several hundred fell in that moment as the rush stalled while snipers picked off officers and other distinguished commanders by their more elaborate armor or barding of their mounts. The breakdown of command and the deadly gauntlet caused the horsemen to break off and flee and many were caught in the confusion.

Company B in the meantime was unleashing their crossbows into the charging infantry with a similar result to the earlier cavalry assault. The Allanians halted their charges and fell back, withdrawing the as of yet still intact 3 infantry regiments heading for the left.

The Allanian general was not happy at the moment considering he had lost more than a 10th of his army without dealing a single casualty to the Manaweaver army. He grudgingly admitted to himself that those strange crossbows were terrifying when they started firing.

Calling his forces to order, the general glared up at the gold Dragon flying over his army before he decided to try a massive charge on multiple fronts. 6 cavalry and 9 infantry regiments were arranged and committed; the infantry began a charge, their lines splitting to attack 6 of Xapferey's companies simultaneously.

Xapferey shifted his lines quickly until his forces were in a horseshoe formation, letting the infantry charge into the horseshoe and the withering fire within. What the Allanian general had lost track of was that in the shifting lines, Xapferey had only committed 5 companies, not 8. The other 3 had activated stealth runes and their armor and equipment blurred into near invisibility.

Xapferey then began channeling a powerful illusion spell, which 'tripled' his standing forces. With illusion mixing with reality, the Allanians were confused but continued to charge, Xapferey had his forces begin firing in single or 3-shot bursts to occupy the enemy. The infantry slowed so they could huddle under their shields; thankfully these bolts were not as powerful as a standard crossbow, so the chance of the bolts going through was less than normal.

The cavalry was now catching up with their infantry regiments and beginning to suffer casualties as they were striking out at the illusory Manaweaver troops, the horsemen wanted to be sure that they were illusions as it would be folly to ignore enemies and to be taken by surprise from all sides.

~~_What are you waiting for?~~ _Deedlit asked while holding onto to her husband's back and aided by sticking runes

~~_You're not wearing a helmet my love, so you cannot see them. Companies G to H are sneaking forward to assault the Allanian officer corps and center line. Hopefully this should break them when our decoy forces disappear and they are caught off balance by having the real troops where they are not expecting, then hitting them in one solid blow.~~_

_~~Art of war?~~_ Deedlit asked faintly, thinking about earlier conversations she had with Xapferey and Malika.

~~_Yes, but truthfully there is no art in war,~~_ Xapferey replied over their private link through the circlets. ~~_War is an ugly thing.~~ _Xapferey turned his attention to his illusion spell and dropped the spell. For the Allanians, before enemies on all sides surrounded them and now, there were no enemies in melee range and they were now being exposed to the combined force of 5000 crossbows of varying types firing as fast as they could on the beleaguered enemy force.

At that same moment, the other 3 companies opened up on the enemy forces at almost point blank range. Their crossbows sprayed bolts left and right, cutting down many like stalks of grain in a very gruesome harvest. That was it for the Allanians, as their forces broke and ran in confused directions despite the shouts of some officers and the screams of the general.

Xapferey let the Allanians flee, though his forces had managed to capture the Allanian general and a few high officers before they withdrew back to their lines. Without leadership, and their morale shattered, the Allanian army retreated from the battlefield leaving almost a third of their troops dead and the victorious Manaweaver army.

Xapferey nodded in satisfaction as he landed on the ground

"Gods," A nearby trooper muttered as he oversaw the devastation his weapon had caused.

"It would be much much worse with firearms private," Xapferey said to him. "There's a reason why I limited those weapons."

"I'm glad such weapons are only in the hands of your family milord. If it is not out of line sire?"

"What's on your mind?" Xapferey asked gently.

"Milord I was with the swordsman groups under the then Colonel Jebra… I saw the wounds your weapon caused… And well…"

"I understand private. Believe me I do, now let's secure the survivors and begin heading home after we take what we can find here. All this equipment is expensive and our enemies were so kind to… furnish it for us."

"Yes milord," The private he was speaking to said with a small grin before he went to help the reclamation teams.

"Your move Allania," Xapferey muttered under his breath. The Dragon King then watched his forces peruse the battlefield and take prisoners of any survivors. There was no resistance and Deedlit stood by her husband the whole time, now equipped with a new sidearm and SMG crossbow.

"We just altered the balance of power in Lodoss," Deedlit commented, having heard Xapferey mention similar things throughout their relationship and especially after their marriage and reign.

"Hopefully for the better my dear."

The army came about and headed south back to their lands and forming capitol city. Upon their return to the capitol city New Vancouver, once the news had spread, the people were obviously overjoyed at the major victory over Allania.

As a celebration, Xapferey hosted a feast for his people and gave a speech to them in his true form so they could hear him.

**"People of Draconia, I stand before you a proud and awed Dragon. I came from far distant lands bringing ideas very foreign in all aspects of life. Yet I am awed at how quickly you accepted my teachings and you have made me proud. I may be your king, but a king needs his people as his people need him. I came before you with promises of freedom and protection for you all. I set rules so all would be dealt with as fairly as possible. But today, today is where you my wonderful people have proven that we fight for our right to be. Today is for us all, all of us who make this realm possible. Today we celebrate our FORMATION DAY."**

The crowd went wild with cheering and applause, it was true, in several months under Xapferey's reign, the people were already becoming better off than years if not decades in their former lives from wherever they had come from. Literacy was rising; the quality of life for the average peasant was now double what it had been before. Children were being taught the basics of all professions and basic education required for a household; future centralized and healthcare similar to Canada would be offered after enough healers were available.

All of these plans were to be subsidized through their taxes; and while said taxes were high, they were nowhere near what they had to pay in their old lands. Combined with the magically binding oaths of office, the people knew the money was being put to its proper use and not to line the pockets of government officials.

Xapferey watched the celebration and joined in for a time feasting with the higher officers of the army. He informed them that once they were large enough, they would become the 1st army.

_Two weeks later_

After the overwhelming victory, Xapferey had received a letter from Fahn requesting that he attend a peace conference in Roid. Xapferey sighed to himself, he understood what Fahn and the others were thinking and he was very sure that Kadimonos had requested that Valis sanction him in some way for so thoroughly kicking Allania's ass militarily.

Xapferey sighed as he took his true form for the meeting as he decided to skip the finery and come himself and keep it simple. He was going to present himself a practical and humble to a point as such he flew to Valis on his own for the meeting of the kings of Allania, Flaim and Valis.

As much as Xapferey wanted to avoid dealing with Allania directly, he had several avenues for getting what he wanted when it came to diplomacy. After he landed near the city, the Dragon transformed to his humanoid form and entered the city. Once it was know that he had arrived, Xapferey was shown to the meeting room with Fahn, Kashue and Kadimonos waiting for him.

"Welcome to Valis my friend."

"Thank you my friend. I wish I could have come under better circumstances," the Dragon replied to Fahn. Xapferey then sat at the table with the other kings. Kadimonos glared at him for a quick moment before beginning his spiel. It was nothing more than Xapferey had expected, citing the weapons as unnatural, overpowered and dishonorable and 'requesting' (read demanding) that Xapferey remove such weapons from his army.

"My fellow kings of Lodoss, gentlemen, I understand your concerns. Believe me I do, but my response believe it or not was moderated. Allow me to explain," he laid a unloadednon-runecrafted crossbow on the table and pulled out his obviously unloaded and unchambered Glock 17 beside it. "Put simply, this," Xapferey pointed at the crossbow "fires a crossbow bolt at 225 feet per second," Xapferey pointed at the Glock. "This fires one of these," Xpaferey put a bullet by the gun "at 1530 feet per second. "A crossbow bolt you have a chance to block or dodge. This…well, you can't possibly, no human ever could."

"Yes, I have seen the…effectiveness of your usual weapons and your reasons for them." Kashue said, having spoken to Xapferey after the events of the ball a little over a year ago and before the battle against Beld's army. "I am certain that things would have been far different if you had given those…guns to your people."

"Indeed, Lodoss is not ready for such weapons," Fahn said as he stared at the Glock on the table.

"Put simply Lord Kadimonos, I have to have such weapons because my army is small, and with Beld to my south I cannot afford to stick to conventional means to safeguard my lands."

"Then I want these weapons, to provide a balance among our nations," he said staring somewhat greedily at the weapons on the table.

"No, I will provide neither the crossbows, nor the firearms technology to you. I made sure to guard my secrets on production. Any with the knowledge of building these weapons have to sign a magically binding contract. Their signature ties them into the contract and only a mandated order signed by me, my wife and my council can override the clauses within. The clauses cannot be overridden if any are pressured by threats, magic or what have you." Kadmionos gave a grudging nod at that; even he could see the value in that.

"Perhaps, but your weapons put all our realms in danger," he retorted.

"Not really, I don't trust Beld, and I do not wish for war."

"Yet your forces marched despite your claim for wanting peace," he replied.

"True, but I responded to an assault on my lands. After the battle was won, we allowed your forces to retreat and we buried the dead after rites were undertaken. We gave the casualties full honors, consider as well that my army marched home immediately after; nor we have not assaulted any of your lands." Kadimonos had to concede that point.

"Regardless, the chance that you could launch an assault on my people is one I cannot allow."

"Likewise, my army is still small and my lands in development, I have enough matters of state to handle without a war added to my problems. I do have a proposal for you, I want an end of hostilities."

"Indeed?"

"Yes," Xapferey unfurled a map of Lodoss he had brought with clearly marked zones. "These are our borders as the current situation holds. The river here provides an excellent degree of separation. The red zones as you can see are to be a buffer zone between our lands. Within these lands our armies will not be allowed to be present. I have nothing against the presence of town militias, but they must be reasonably sized for the towns they are based in."

"Very well, but I want your weapon designs in exchange."

"No, I will not give you our modern crossbow designs, instead I will give you this," Xapferey pulled out a scroll with designs of a modified crossbow. "This is the Tri-shot crossbow. The designs and modifications are easy to make on any regular crossbow and I'm offering the designs to Valis and Flaim as well." Xapferey had already been planning on handing over the designs to his allies; this would just make it more legitimate an offering in the Dragon's eyes.

"I think these designs are a fair compromise considering the discrepancies in army sizes," Kashue offered to the others kings.

"Very well," Kadimonos said as he picked up the designs "my lords," he said nodding at them before he left.

Xapferey sighed quietly as he looked at Kashue and Fahn, Kashue had a slight smile as the terms of the meeting shifted to less formal standards.

"You handled that well," Kashue said with a smile.

"I suppose, that took less time than I expected."

"Not all negotiations are so difficult and even ones involving such… difficult circumstances."

"Mm," Xapferey said quietly. "My friends please excuse me, as I have to get back to my wife."

"How is she faring?"

"Well enough, all things considering… the situation proved her worth as my queen."

"Be safe Xapferey, and be advised; Beld may try to seize any information about your weapons." Xapferey sighed again and nodded before he looked at Fahn and Kashue before he pulled out designs to something he was working on.

"My friends these designs are something I developed in answer to the Great Dragons like Shooting Star, Narse, Abram. The… nastier ones if you will," Fahn and Kashue nodded as they began looking over the blueprints of the MPAA (minus several important things like the more powerful runes). "The suit is my answer to the Dragons who let's face it, their heads are bigger than my body in my true form. The fact of the matter is, even with my help without this suit, and engaging with conventional armies… well I don't want to think about the casualties." Both kings winced in agreement with the Dragon's thoughts.

"Yes, this might be an answer, could you make more of them?"

"Not for humans, it was designed for my true form because my body is stronger."

"Please keep it that way, I want your word that you will only use this if the outlined situation require it," Fahn requested sternly.

"You have it my friend, I will only use the MPAA in response to the appropriate situation." Xapferey took back the blueprints and left before flying home.

As he flew over the ground, the Dragon mused about the meeting, he supposed having the two other kings of Lodoss there helped expedite the negotiations; and both of them were not very happy with Allania for backing out of their allied commitment against Marmo.

Xapferey flew in and landed on the balcony still pondering the situation and he retook human form. After changing, he climbed into bed beside his wife and fell asleep still thinking about the letters and what sort of issues he would have to deal with next.

The next morning Xapferey woke to find Deedlit gone and a warm spot where she had been before. His ears picked up retching noises from the bathroom as he rushed to join her there. Considering Elves did not catch colds or any forms of viruses, Xapferey quickly guessed that Deedlit and him would be parents in a year's time.

"I have a feeling this is very good news for us," Xapferey said with a grin as he helped his wife to her feet after her bout of illness. Her wide smile and happy nod confirmed his guess.

"We're having a baby," Deedlit laughed joyously as Xapferey twirled her around in the air laughing as well.

"So in a year, we'll have our little hybrid."

"A year?" Deedlit asked puzzled. "Oh… half-Dragon children have a longer pregnancy period?"

"Yes, would you want to be checked over just to be certain?"

"Just to be sure," Deedlit agreed.

"Activate the EMH," Xapferey called out and a moment later the Emergency Medical Hologram in the portrayal of Robert Picardo appeared in the royal chambers. Deedlit had known about the program from Malika and it was her first time seeing him.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"My wife is pregnant and wants to make sure everything is fine."

"Of course," The Doctor picked up a hidden medical tricorder and began scanning her; Deedlit did flinch slightly at the noise of the device as it was slightly irritating to her enhanced hearing. "Please relax," he requested of Deedlit.

"Doctor, may I inquire as to your medical programming?"

"Yes, I have been upgraded and programmed with 7 million possible treatments from 3000 medical journals and the experience of 82 doctors specializing in human, Draconic, Elven and hybrid physiologies. Your wife and daughter are fine your highness, if that is all?"

"Daughter?" Deedlit gasped, "you can tell so soon?"

"You are three weeks pregnant my lady and this scanner is very advanced and precise," He replied to Deedlit before looking at Xapferey.

"That will be all thank you Dr…?"

"I was programmed with the name Robert Picardo."

"Of course, doctor. If it would not be an imposition on your program, your medical aid would be of great use to our healing facilities."

"It's not an imposition, it is my job. I will transfer myself there now to see if I am needed."

"Thank you doctor." The hologram winked out and Xapferey could not stop the facepalm or snickering any longer. "Sheesh, he's older than me by galactic orders of magnatudes and he still has almost the same sense of humor as me."

"…?" Deedlit made a questioning noise as her husband's antics.

"Simple enough, everything from the Lodoss Flyer and technologies similar to it were based on a… play portrayal... Robert Picardo was the name of the actor who portrayed the actor who played the Emergency Medical Hologram or EMH," Xapferey explained to Deedlit and she giggled at Xapferey now that she had a grasp of the situation.

Little did the two know the situation that would be coming soon or the wide impacts it would have on them and their future.

A/N – Sorry, would have had this done sooner, but it's hard to write with a sore and broken tooth distracting you. That and my beta made an excellent suggestion to redo this chapter which I did… enjoy.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Delving the currents

Final note, Chronicles of the Heroic Knight timeline happens 10 years later than canon.

_6 months after chapter 13_

Things had been quiet since the overwhelming defeat of Allania, from a military standpoint. Flaim and Valis were now much more accepting of their new ally as the tri-shot crossbow designs helped to offset the power of the repeating crossbows.

Despite the change, 160 Manaweaver troops were still enough to often put a severe hurt on an enemy many times their size due to their crossbows.

With refugees and immigrants from Allania, Kanon and other lands trickling in, Xapferey had to rapidly bolster his economy for dealing with the influx of people and their wages for their future jobs. Thankfully any and all foreign debt was cleared by selling runecrafted devices such as runecraft seeds which not only helped crops grow healthy and vermin free, they doubled the yield of all crops by halving the required growing times.

In the desert kingdom of Flaim, such magical devices were godsend where growing space was hard to come by. Secondly, Xapferey's northern allies were right on the doorstep of Shooting Star, a massive cranky and outright evil Dragon. As such, their western lands were fertile but unusable.

In response to the troubles of his allies and future attacks by Shooting Star or the other evil dragons such as Narse or Abram. Xapferey, Malika and Slain had designed the Mana Powered Assault Armor (MPAA). Said armor combined high technology and the best runecrafting they could add on and the prototype system was equipped with a veritable arsenal of weapons.

Despite the arrival of the runic seeds or rune-seeds as they were called by the layman, Flaim's growing season was hit hard this particular year due to the heat and many crops suffered from droughts. As such many decided to try their luck and colonize the reaches by Fire Dragon Mountain to secure enough food for the winter even with the misgivings and aid of Valis and Draconia on the matter.

As such, Xapferey was in the midst of Operation Drag and Drop as he named it. Drag and Drop involved sneaking into Abram's lair with their only package of disposable transport enhancers and beaming the evil Dragon into space where it would die from the cold and vacuum exposure.

Said plan was only good for one Dragon and Xapferey was confident he could take Shooting Star with the MPAA so he snuck off with Malika and the Flyer under cloak to Abram's island in the south of Lodoss.

"Last emitters are in place, are we ready? If we screw up, the plan is blown period."

"Beacon planted, energizing in 10 seconds," Malika reported from the Lodoss Flyer.

"Shit he's awake… And moving," The mighty blue Dragon rose and began leaving the area of the enhancers, in response Xapferey began muttering a very powerful spell under his breath completing it just before the Dragon moved out of range of the enhancers. Soon a pair of twirling square bands of energy connected by glowing green bars appeared around the blue Dragon.

The Dragon roared in challenge before it began pounding at the spell holding it, but with Xapferey reinforcing the magic, it held. Abram disappeared in blue light and his roar was cut off by his sudden appearance in vacuum.

"Abram is confirmed dead," Xapferey heard in his earpiece. ""However Shooting Star is moving on your northern allies for disturbing his hunting grounds.

"Great… when it rains it pours," the young gold grumbled. "Deploy the MPAA, have it meet me enroute.

"I have a lock, I'll provide a site to site transport while I use the Flyer to acquire the treasure.

"See if you can find the Soul Crystal Ball, we'll be likely needing to hide it if Wagnard tries for Kardis again."

"Tries?" Malika asked rhetorically "energizing," Xapferey disappeared and reappeared in midair halfway between Flaim and Draconia. Since the MPAA suit was based on elements from the Iron Man and Mijolnir armor systems it had a bulky look to it. Especially along the spine where the reactors and mana wells were placed. The armor deployed itself, opening up while Malika locked on to Xapferey's limb positions.

Being designed for a full Dragon, Xapferey had cut his whiskers; and considering the last time he had put on the suit, he had gotten part of the armor stuck after it trapped a couple whiskers. The armor had inadvertently borrowed from Iron Man's color schemes, as Xapferey based it on the red and gold flag of Draconia (gold Dragon on a red background).

The armor opened like a flower coming into bloom before it began encapsulating the young Dragon. The armor quickly took the form of a heavily armored Dragon. The young gold watched systems pop up all over his HUD and spoke to his AI through the earpiece.

"Malika you there?"

"Up and running, just as we practiced on the holodeck."

"Let's do it, raise shields and arm everything. Jets to full and standby all `maneuvering thrusters. Maximum burn," Xapferey ordered and the jets roared propelling the Dragon to mach two causing many to look in the clear sky in question at the rolling thunder.

Xapferey watched the ground pass under him at a ridiculous pace as it turned from arable to arid, then sand and then back to grasslands. The smell of smoke and fire assaulted Xapferey's nostrils despite the suit's air filters and the Dragon grimaced under his helmet.

Once Xapferey flew within visual range of Shooting Star he groaned. The dragon's head was bigger than his… whole… freaking… body. He then slowed to subsonic speeds and aimed his wrist-mounted machine gun firing the same caliber rounds as his G11.

"Eat this you overgrown gecko on steroids," he snarled as he opened fire. The large Dragon roared in surprised pain as the bullets dented or cut into his powerful scales. He let loose a long 15 second burst of gunfire into the Dragon's side before he activated the missile launcher. The missile fired straight at the monstrous Dragon before it deployed its MIRV attachments and the large missile and the secondary warheads impacted blowing great holes into it.

Swearing in surprise at the durability of the Great Dragon in face of advanced weaponry, Xapferey banked and pulsed his thrusters pushing him ahead of the great beast and activated another weapon. From the back of his armor came the specially designed shrapnel mines, as they bounced into Shooting Star's path before detonating all over him. Shooting Star snarled angrily before he unleashed a truly terrifying blast of flame at Xapferey.

The Dragon however tucked his right wing in and fired his right thrusters and deployed his air brakes carrying him out of the path of the flames and alongside the oversized brute. A beam of red energy lashed out from the emitters on his left leg and sliced into Shooting Star and the Dragon shrieked in agony.

The beam shut down a few seconds later, the micro phaser bank not having enough energy to sustain the beam for long or multiple beams. The fact of the matter was that Xapferey was in trouble. The Mark 0 MPAA (being a combat ready test bed) was not designed for prolonged combat and many of the systems were experimental and lacked the sufficient ammunition reserves needed to kill Shooting Star. Xapferey had just fired off the last of his missiles and his guns were displaying critical ammo warnings as he continued firing into the beast.

The younger Dragon swore angrily as his guns finally clicked empty. He forced Shooting Star to chase him with the last of his shrapnel mines and flew dangerously close to the ground at terminal velocity with the oversized four-winged Dragon chasing him towards his lair.

'Wait… wait… NOW!' Xapferey thought as he rotated his wings in his sockets and aided by brakes and inertial dampeners throughout the suit he halted in mid-air and Shooting Star smashed into the mountain before crashing through onto his horde and knocking himself silly by smashing through the stone and rock; combined with his injuries inflicted, the Dragon collapsed into unconsciousness.

"Can we finish him?" Xapferey asked Malika over the coms.

"Nope, your guns are completely dry, best head home and start making improvements."

"Yea… more ammo for all weapons for sure, might want to consider more inertial dampeners for the wing sockets, I think I pulled something."

"Deploying painkillers, you did strain your shoulder and wing muscles a little with that maneuver… think about what would have happened if you didn't have the suit."

"Rather not thanks… get us home."

"We're on our way, maximum burn?"

"Maximum burn," Xapferey agreed. "it's getting late and I want to get home."

The Dragon had no idea how right he was. The flight home was uneventful and Malika and Slayn greeted him at the gates of the castle. The inner and outer courtyards had small towns growing within their walls and traffic passed into and out of them through the opened gates to the village that was springing up around the castle.

"How did it go milord?" Slayn asked while Malika waited silently with a pensive look on her face."

"As well as could be expected, he's so damn big and durable he ran my guns dry."

"Not even the micro…phaser," Slayn still stumbled slightly over the word "emitters could finish him?"

"It hurt him bad, we're going to have to upgrade the ammunition stores if the MPAA-I has any hopes of finishing the brute if we have to launch again, Malika, begin rearming the MPAA and standby to build the MPAA-I once we have a viable refit."

"Very well."

"Meet me in the runecrafting room Malika, you too Slayn if you got the time."

"Regrettably I do not at the moment, I have found several with excellent potiential for magic and I have begun teaching them. I must continue building our own mage forces, please excuse me milord."

"Ok Slayn, I'll keep you as appraised as I can."

"Thank you."

Half an hour later, Xapferey decided to work in his personal chambers instead on the MPAA-I. He and Malika were busy debating the merits of changing or altering various weapons.

"Look Malika, the main issues with the bloody phasers were power. The emitters fire too powerful a beam. Hence why they burned out, I think phasers were a poor choice."

"Pulse phasers then?"

"No I'm thinking either smaller scale, unless we can put in a phaser bank or an entire phaser array."

"The main issue with that is power, we don't have room for the phaser array, nor the power. A phaser bank is possible, but it would make the leg bulkier and slower maneuvering. Plus it would take more energy from the reactor. We'd have to put in a secondary reactor and there I just no room right now. You yourself hated how bulky the reactor casing made the armor. But we don't have any dithlithium deposits to replace it with an Anti-matter reactor. Our supplies are needed for the Flyer and it would take a minimum of half to build a proper reactor. None of our probes have found any suitable dilithium deposits in the system either."

"Hmm… ok, strip the phaser, put in a prismatic ray weapon instead."

"Oh I see… hmmm, you'd have to maintain fire for a minimum of two minutes to properly kill a great Dragon."

"I'm well aware of the requirements of a weapon with a lensing effect," the lensing effect referred to a beam of energy that grew more powerful as the beam was maintained on a target.

"Unless you want to configure it for high energy focused bursts."

"Configure the design for dual settings, give me options depending on the situation. Stripping out the phasers will free room and power for other systems.

"All right, I'll get it done."

"Thanks Malika that will be all."

"Good night milord."

Watching the hologram wink out of the room, Xapferey got ready for bed, and he smiled as Deedlit shifted into him and he gently rubbed her belly.

"Good night my little one."

_Vandakass Star System _

_Vanda prime orbit_

_Cilarista first fleet_

At the same time Xapferey Manaweaver fell asleep, his greater alternate self was watching, not quite having finished watching over the young Dragon.

"So young Manaweaver, what to do?" Xapferey growled quietly as his mighty flagship shuddered; even the inertial dampeners were unable to completely quiet the effects of the massive weapons array of the Xanroth class vessel fired on the defenses of the planet below.

Xapferey turned his attention back to the multiverse, the question was how far did he want to go in his interference. The truth of the matter was Malkira, Manaweaver's future child would fall in love with a young man, his name: Merlin.

"How far do I need to take this? Decisions, decisions," Xapferey Sharnoras wondered his gold eyes gleaming with power.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Sympathy pains.

_Almost 6 months after chapter 14_

The past six months had been quiet on all fronts for the young Dragon king and his family. Nethalus had been occupied with Pirotess and preparing things for his child. What was surprising to Xapferey was that Pirotess actually had a lovely disposition while she was pregnant and not as volatile as he had been mentally preparing for. Something Nethalus had teased him about mercilessly in private until Xapferey playfully sat on him.

Having a 20-foot tall Dragon sitting on Nethalus was quite conductive to Xapferey's desire for peace and quiet until Nethalus learned his lesson. Needless to say Nethalus freely admitted that he had deserved it.

Deedlit however had a nasty temper when riled, as Xapferey knew… (like when she screamed at Parn or berated him on multiple occasions). Thankfully his scales and size was enough to discourage any hormone caused temper tantrums, and his bond with Deedlit allowed him to calm her without issue. The majority of time Deedlit was radiant at the thought of her approaching child and she took the opportunity to read all she had available on half-Dragon children. The two had spent time discussing names before Xapferey had suggested Malkira; the name felt right to Deedlit and the little one had kicked ironically at the same time the two agreed on Malkira.

"Looks like she approves," Xapferey laughed as he felt the little girl kick.

"Very much so," Deedlit agreed as she laughed gently at the situation. With a name ready for their daughter, the two had prepared a crib for the child although both were nervous about when her Draconic features would start growing, namely her claws, cranial ridge and wings.

_*Pagebreak*_

_Castle keep of Draconia _

_City of New Vancouver _

_General Jebra's office_

The 4-star general and supreme commander of Draconia's forces was looking over the various troop arrangements. Draconia's army had swelled again over the last six months since the humiliating defeat of Allania, morale was at an all time high. Recruitment and training was rather stretched at the moment considering 5,500 more troops were being added to the sizable armed force of already 17,500 regular troops and 2500 Linebreakers. The forces were to be deployed to forts constructed in the countryside of Draconia, the majority of them would be sent to near the northern and southern borders to secure them. Jebra was in the process of making preparations for the various armies sent around.

The officer corps was secure in size, but further expansion would be ill advised for logistical capabilities of the army and its suppliers.

As for the north, Allania was keeping true to its borders, their military seemed more occupied in the northwestern reaches of their lands dealing with a series of either riots or some sort of barbarian tribe raiding them. In the South, Marmo was too busy consolidating its position in Kanon, and many villages in west Kanon were abandoned by their people in face of Marmo's rule, fleeing northwards to join other refugees in Draconia. However Marmo secured the borders and no further refugees would likely be arriving to Draconia in the near future. Thankfully Beld was too busy with rebellions to deal with the refugees currently. But people knew in the future his attention would once again come back to the north and Lodoss itself again.

Returning to his work, Jebra was overseeing the creation of 22 separate armies of 1000 each. 1000 regulars and the Linebreakers fell directly under his and royal authority.

22 armies, each army's officer corps consisting of a 1-star general, 2 Colonels (1 Lt. Colonel), 3 Majors, 5 Captains, 10 Lieutenants and a full NCO staff.

Jebra signed off on the orders for the formations of the armies and the officer corps commanding them before he turned his attention to other less important matters.

_*Pagebreak*_

_Orbit of Forceria _(Planet name for the world of Lodoss)

_Lodoss Flyer tactical room _

"As you can see milord, there are plenty of moons and asteroids with the required material for project: Defiance. The gas giants in the system give us access to plenty of deuterium, enough for a whole fleet of ships for several million years at wartime demands."

"All right, I'm convinced, can Defiance be done?"

"Secretly?" Xapferey nodded in reply; "with the materials on hand, plus the automated facilities we have on hand, with the Flyer on station for transport of all materials," Malika tapped her pursed lips in thought. "A decade unless you want to cut corners."

"10 years?" Xapferey asked with an annoyed groan.

"The facilities we have on hand were never designed alone for what you have in mind… we could do another Assault-Flyer Class in two if you wished… and before you ask, your daughter will be in her late teens before they are both done."

"How many?"

"60 minimum for Defiance alone, skeleton I would say 20… bare bones, 9 but if we picked up uninvited guests I would not want to think about it."

"True… beam me back now, site to site transport… you have my approval for Defiance and Flyer-II."

"Yes milord, my copy will be on station to keep us appraised of any updates."

"Good, energize," Xapferey reappeared in his home, his departure and return unnoticed by all.

_*Pagebreak*_

_Back on Flyer that same moment_

With Xapferey left the flyer, she activated a copy of her self, then sealed the majority of the shuttle with a force field. The badge of a gold Dragon surrounded by an image of magic turned into a skeletal hand clutching a dark orb. A bone helm covered her head and her eyes burned purple. Her black deathlike staff returned to her grasp. Stepping beyond the force field, the woman was replaced with a black bird. The Shadow Phoenix she had become flew through the now open door into space and let gravity pull herself down to the planet.

An hour later, she returned to the shuttle, her mission complete. The hologram's original image of a highly attractive dark haired woman returned.

"I may not be as powerful as the original, but I do it for you regardless," Malika said as she stared down at Draconia from orbit. "Everything is progressing as you have foreseen."

*Pagebreak*

At the moment though, Xapferey was in a high council meeting and he was completely nervous about the ever approaching due date of his daughter's birth. His wife was in their private medical bay onboard the Flyer. Slayn, Nethalus, Pirotess with their sleeping 3-month-old daughter Drisellowynn, Woodchuck and Ghim were in attendance along with Estas, Deedlit's childhood friend and a representative of the Elves.

"The Elf King and queen are very receptive to your proposal Lord Manaweaver, but our people are still very… reluctant to leave the safety of the Forest."

"I understand Estas, but the fact of the matter is, we need our Elf allies. There is too much suspicion surrounding the Elves, and if our people can welcome a former Dark Elf noble, then a town of Elves within our borders is less of an issue than many believe. Besides the leatherworking and several crafts of the Elves are of higher quality than many human works, it would be a great boon to both our economies and trade."

"I will be sure to give my endorsement to your plans."

"I'm hoping this will open many other options between my people and yours Estas."

The Elf nodded, bowed respectfully and departed for the Forest to the west. The next meeting that Xapferey had to deal with was going to be a highly interesting and controversial one considering he was being visited by a delegation of Marmo. The meeting had lasted for several hours; and ended with agreements to maintain their non-aggression pact. Xapferey did however sell them the tri-shot designs for a fair price. Once the Marmo delegation had departed, Xapferey called over the present members of his council, namely Slayn, Woodchuck and Nethalus.

"My friends, is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

"No my lord."

Well that is good new…HNGNN," a very sudden and powerful pain in his stomach cut him off and Xapferey clutched his desk and hunched over.

"Xapferey!" Slayn and Woodchuck said in shock before they rushed to help him but he waved them off.

"I'm… GRRN… fine," Xapferey got out through clenched teeth as he forced himself up and headed towards his chambers. About 10 minutes later he stumbled with a snarl of pain and was hunched over by the pain in his stomach area that he was forced to sink to the ground as his friends crowded around him. The third time it happened Nethalus started to snicker as he realized what his friend was dealing with.

"This is serious Nethalus," Slayn snapped unable to stop his temper due to worry over his friend.

"You… you don't know what's happening?" Nethalus choked out while Xapferey glared at him before he collapsed into a ball panting in pain.

"Nethalus shut up and don't start with me or so help me… I'll have you walk to… the port of Raiden and back 10 times in a row," Xapferey snarled. "You know exactly what's happening old fiend…Errgh."

"What's going on?" Woodchuck asked completely clueless as to what was happening.

"It's sympathy pains," Nethalus said with a smirk.

"Sympathy pains? You main labor pains?" Slayn asked in complete shock.

"Yes… Deedlit and I share an empathic bond, emotions, feelings *pant* and pain… what my un…*gasp*… repentant fiend is trying to say is that the pain I am feeling is not out of an overt desireerre… to sympathize with my wife, but it is because I am…feeling the pain of labor… in other words gentlemen… I am feeling exactly what my wife is while giving… birth," Xapferey snarled through gritted teeth.

"OOOOHHHHH!" Nethalus shouldered his glaring friend and he helped him to the medical bay on the Lodoss Flyer where everything was happening before he made himself scarce.

With that completed and the annoyance chased away, Xapferey stumbled into the sickbay of the Flyer and staggered to the chair by his wife before the EMH gave Deedlit a painkiller to dull the sensations.

"I'm here my love." Deedlit smiled radiantly at Xapferey before he offered his hand for Deedlit to squeeze.

"Start with nice easy pushes milady, here," the EMH gave Deedlit another dose of painkillers to ease things as Deedlit began squeezing her husband's hand. The Doctor checked the readings on the nearby screen and he nodded "that's it, the baby is orienting itself properly. Now push," Deedlit cried out and the EMH kept encouraging Deedlit.

"That's it… Deedlit, bring our child to the world," Xapferey said, his eyes aglow with love and anticipation. Deedlit smiled before she concentrating on the pressing urges her body was telling her. Inch by inch the EMH guided the baby out and the sickbay was filled with the plaintive cries of an infant. The Hologram doctor then toweled off the newborn before handing her back to her parents to look over and admire.

The newly born Malkira had tiny pointed ears, miniature versions of her mother's; her head was topped by a wisp of blond hair, though her eyes were clue to her unique heritage at the moment; Malkira's eyes were simple gold irises. The child had quieted now, her natural magic has recognized and latched onto her parent's lightly the result being a calming effect on the now curious child. Not long after Malkira let out a little yawn as she fell asleep.

"You're lovely, my little Malkira," Xapferey said with a smile.

"She certainly is," Deedlit agreed as they cuddled with their child.

After Malkira's birth, Draconia spent two weeks in celebration as Flaim and Valis send congratulations to the royal family. Fahn himself had been kind enough to aid the couple by sending old things of his daughter Princess Fianna that she no longer needed.

Citizen and council member of Draconia alike sent in gifts and well wishes for their newest royal. Malkira had been cooed over by all who saw her while being watched over by Malkira's parents and the newly formed royal guards, the Dragon Knights.

Parn himself had been chosen to command the Dragon Knights, as they were they best of the best coming from the army and Linebreakers alike. Xapferey had made sure that their magical oaths were ironclad and no loopholes existed in the oaths. Each member of the Dragon Knights was a volunteer, approached and interviewed by the king and council; and each of them took the oath willingly and with honor.

_Vandakass system _

_Vanda prime orbit_

_Cilarista first fleet _

Xapferey Sharnoras stared at the tactical screen as his armada assaulted the Hell Dragon and Drow world. The last of the defenders anti-orbital batteries were forcibly silenced and the 447th (Linebreakers) division under General Avarielle Volokinn was creating a beachhead for the first army to deploy on the planet.

"First ships will have planetfall in an hour milord, General Volokinn reports the enemy fortress has been seized and ready for occupation and deployment of our forces."

"Excellent news Commander, send my regards to the General. I will be in my quarters, inform me when deployment is complete."

"Aye milord."

With that Xapferey left to his quarters, nodding to his guards before he turned to the "window." "Well Manaweaver, you've begun the first step and now to begin… hmm."

Xapferey watched as Morgana sacrificed her dying half sister Morgause to tear open the veil between the living and dead worlds. He winced, as Morgana's anger would manifest in a permanent nightfall in two days for them. The Dorocha, or the dead spirits of tortured souls would wreak havoc on the living throughout the night; their very touch meant a very cold death… pun not intended.

"Ahh Morgana, your foolishness will be your undoing… well let's change one little thing," Considering how knowledgeable Xapferey Sharnoras was with controlling and dealing with undead, he was able to tweak the path of the exiting Dorocha. Rather than passing by the fallen sorceress, they passed through her.

"Step one done, now for step two." Xapferey forced the Gatekeeper of the Veil to inform Merlin of the tear through a dream, a warning to get everyone they could to Camelot to protect them. The fact of the matter was the Cilarista lord had a long road to walk before he could carry out his full plans. "Step three will be taken care of tomorrow," he said to himself as he went to join his wife.

A/N Poor Xapferey Manaweaver… Malkira will likely be an only child if he has to go through that again :P *Laughs unrepentantly*… Alright I think I am satisfied with this chapter, and hopefully people like it, as for Malkira, you'll get a look at her life sure, good ones, but I'm not going to write out every little thing.

Yes Malika and Malkira names are similar, you'll get no sympathy from me if you mix them up… writing is harder than reading… As to what Malika is up to… you'll have to see in the future.


	17. Chapter 16

A/N In the anime, Fahn addresses Kashue by name without title, meaning that they are both close and on the same rung of the social ladder. At this point I would think that Xapferey is both a good friend and rather close to them both at this point.

Chapter 16: Malkira and movements.

_9 months after chapter 15_

The past 9 months were both a joy and a bit of a burden for the royal family of Draconia. A pleasant burden considering it was their daughter, but most beings tended to be groggy and a bit cranky on 5 hours sleep due to a fussy child. The two were never cranky with Malkira, and the child was crawling far quicker than a Human or Elf child.

"Dada," Malkira said as she gently pulled her father's pant leg. Xapferey looked down and gave a surprised smile at his child. "Dada wan up," Malkira said as she reached out for her father. Xapferey picked up his child both awed and impressed at her words so early. Though considering Malkiraa was a half-Dragon, her mental accomplishments should have been expected.

"Xapferey?" Deedlit asked as she entered the main area from the Flyer's launch bay where she was learning the advanced technology.

"Malkira said her first words," Xapferey replied in a quiet awed voice as the child turned to her mother.

"Mama, mama," Malkira said as she waved proudly at her mother. Deedlit smiled herself as she came to join the two her green eyes alight and her joy mingled with Xapferey's.

Two days later, Xapferey had Malkira in his lap as he read to her and she pointed at a letter. "E."

"Very good Malkira, what's the next letter?"

"…Esss. S," the child enuciated slowly looking up at her father for both answer and approval.

"That's right… Deedlit come see, your daughter is reading."

Deedlit came and with a happy prideful smile she congratulated her child. Over the 9 months, the two had worked hard to balance their relationship between each other and Malkira with their duties as King and Queen. As a result, to save the time and to gift their allies as well, Xapferey had sent a runecrafted disk of sorts, which would allow for real time communication between the kings and councils of Flaim, Valis and Draconia. Along with the disk Xapferey sent a letter explaining his reasons for such.

_To my friends and allies Kashue and Fahn, This disk is to foster closer cooperation and speed of communication between ourselves and our councils as needed. The fact of the matter is that official letters of state can be intercepted or altered without either side knowing it. That and some pressing situations may need to be discussed immediately, and cannot wait for the travel of official couriers for the sake of communication. _

_Kashue, when Shooting Star assaulted your peoples, we had been both fortunate as I had been both near the area and prepared for the Dragon's wrath. Had I been further away, the time he attacked your lands could have gone far worse for all involved. _

_Fahn my friend, when Karla seized your daughter on the road is part of why I am sending this letter and these disks. These disks can allow for a person or a room to communicate to one or both of the sister disks in real time, meaning responses are immediate as if they were in the same room in a regular conversation. In such an instance or if Malkira were to be seized by another party, searches by all three nations could be arranged immediately. Personal meetings between could be held with ease, and without risking members of our courts to bandits or other hostile nations. _

_Your friend and ally_

_Xapferey Manaweaver _

_King of Draconia._

Two weeks after sending the message the runic disk on Xapferey's desk began blinking. Activating it led to an image of Kings Fahn and Kashue in their offices and they both nodded to each other before turning the attention to Xapferey.

"Well, this is certainly a more… convenient manner of communication," Kashue said to Xapferey with a smile.

"It's a step to the closeness of communication my people shared with their allies for both the sake of commerce and mutual defense."

"The benefits are certainly worth this project," Fahn agreed.

"It may seem things are too easy with this runecraft, but this is only small scale… I lack the means and the opportunity to make this wider scale."

"Well if it proves to be as useful as you recommended, I will likely request more of them, if not outright purchase the designs," Fahn said.

"Agreed, I myself find your recommendations are very accurate. My people and I were grateful that you were close enough to aid us against Shooting Star and that the damage and casualties could have been far worse without you. "

"Well I'm glad to help my friend. I'm certain we would all do the same for the other if we could."

"Indeed," Fahn agreed simply. "How fairs your child Malkira?"

"She's doing amazingly well, she's talking and reading."

"Already? She cannot be older than 10 months."

"Just over 9, she's half-Dragon, they mature mentally faster than Human or Elf children. There are times where I do have to chase after her, she is crawling and getting almost everywhere and into everything." Fahn laughed in reminiscence.

"Ah yes, I remember when Fianna was in that stage… children… you love them with all you have until they cause you to go grey."

"Indeed, my scales may go grey at this rate… Still I'm proud of what she's accomplishing as she grows."

"As any father should be" Fahn said with a reminiscing smile.

"Excuse me please, regrettably I have some affairs that require my attention." Kashue said.

"Very well my friend, feel free to contact myself as you need."

"Farewell Kashue," the desert king nodded before his image faded from the disk. Fahn gestured to Xapferey signifying that he wished to continue the conversation.

"I have to say as she grows I'm not going to enjoy when her more Draconic traits begin manifesting."

"They do not already?" Fahn asked curiously.

"No, I have an excellent physician sent to me by a… contact who was kind enough to grant me some favors. Any debts between us are now paid and he will only be able, if he does still send any more aid, it will be mostly indirect from here on out. Ahem, anyways, according to my own research and the advice of my physician without going into too many details about genetics or capabilities of other races… The child develops their more Draconic features in their early teens, much like say the maturity of a human child. It's a feature to avoid stressing the mother or inadvertently damaging her."

"I see… why are you not looking forwards to such things?"

"Because she will be considerably stronger than any human. My physician has advised me that the weakest half-Dragon is strong enough to punch through solid stone or bend steel without too much effort. Odds are things will be broken due her… unexpected strength as the changes are usually rapid and the child will likely grow stronger before the can adapt their habits to the changes."

"Ah… There are some lords wishing me to convey the offers of an arranged marriage for your child."

"I understand, but I am going to have to decline those offers. It wouldn't be fair to the partner… Malkira has the same lifespan as her mother and myself. Immortal and mortals do not end well for either partner. I have heard tales of other Elves and Humans falling in love, it usually ends in tragedy for both."

"I do understand…" Fahn was about to mention Xapferey's changes, but the disguised Dragon raising his hand forestalled him.

"My case was… unique and required a ritual of which death had considerable possibility of occurring. I was lucky and strong enough. I am giving you a tale from a far land called the _Lay of Luthien_. It is one of the reasons why I am extremely hesitant."

"I shall read it as soon as I can… And the other reasons are if I may ask?"

"It is not widely known yet, but my people are now protected with human rights laws and a modified Charter of Rights and Freedoms based on laws that existed in my homelands. Arranged marriages made by myself would contravene both. There now some cases being processed by our courts taking these into account."

"An… ambitious project… but the results cannot be denied."

"Traders and their loose lips," Xapferey said with a sigh as Fahn nodded.

"Your people certainly have a much higher standard of living than many others similar to them in different lands."

"It's the choice of … blades or butter. Do I fund my military or my social-economic capacities of my people? A balance is needed I find and I seek to rectify problems that plague the… less shall we say economically blessed."

"I understand and I believe we have much to learn from each other."

"Please excuse me Fahn I have some affairs that require my attention."

"Of course, I understand."

Xapferey disconnected the call and secured his computer before he opened project: Defiance. Malika's image appeared in the bottom left corner of his screen as he plugged in a set of headphones.

"Well I'm glad that Defiance and Flyer-II is being prepared… what are the hulls composed of?"

"Endurinium ablative hull armor as specs require. We have the specs to replicate it, we just need power and with the overly rich supplies of deuterium we have easy access to."

"Understood."

"We need to discuss armaments of Defiance, compared to the standard Defiant class."

"Bring up Defiant class specs on screen… hmm, standard weapons, 4 phaser cannons, probably 4 phasers, 4 forward dual use torpedo tubes, 2 aft… This won't do at all, if not for their quantum torpedoes, our Flyer-I could probably beat the crap out of the Defiant. Never mind the point defense."

"We'll have to obviously increase the size if we're going to add to the weapons. I would recommend keeping similar design, although I would recommend increasing length to 221 meters. Height to 41 and width to 155 meters."

"That would cause a considerable rise in crew requirements."

"Minimum of 40, bare bones of 15. But it'll have the room for you to go crazy on weapons milord… we do not have the same capacity for dimensional alterations as the Cilarista if you consider the armaments of the new Dana class mark-VI."

"Six? I've never heard of the six, I barely know the five."

"10 km length addition, 42% more weapons in each fire arc, shields and ablative generators 500% improvement over the five."

"Good grief, you could practically ram a planet into that thing and I'd be more worried about the planet. Point taken… umm… 40 phaser arrays, 36 phaser cannons, give me nine and six dual purpose assault tubes… 200 point defense."

"Good, cause 9 was stretching it… we could do 12 regular photons…"

"Well Malika if we push it that's what 27 photon or quantum torpedoes in a single volley?"

"54 photon, 27 quantum, they are larger and with the assault tubes we can fire mixed volleys."

"Pocket battleship indeed… in the proper hands…"

"The larger specs will make it take more time and with Flyer-II, larger specs means it could carry 5 Flyer class. If we build all of them, it won't be ready until Malkira is 21 at least."

"Do it… Prioritize Flyer-II for now… double the workforce, cargo and supply gathering."

"Aye milord."

"Oh and Malika, I saw your little jaunt to Flaim, Allania and Marmo… what were you doing?"

"Making sure your alterations did not damage the timeline and render your knowledge useless."

"Good, but never do that again without my permission; if you had been caught it would have made things very difficult on me. Now, as for the other big project?"

"Research is progressing, I would recommend another 9 years practice."

"I'll practice, and before you say it, the fleet is for other purposes is that clear?"

"Yes milord."

"Good, now we shall begin researching magical databases ok?" She nodded, "You are Malika-H-01 not Malika Shadowshifter is that clear?"

"Perfectly my lord, I will follow your orders to the letter."

The plan was for many databases to be tied into runecrafted HUDs of all sorts, allowing doctors' access to diagnostic databases, military purposes and many other applications to the growing nation. With a population of now 68,000 and many villages and towns popping up throughout the realm Xapferey could stand proud of his achievements. Deedlit smiled at him as she entered the room and set Malkira in her crib, both were learning things that Deedlit had never considered before but she understood now what her husband was doing and preparing for.

Xapferey walked over to his wife and daughter; Malkira was sleeping soundly while Deedlit snuggled into Xapferey's side.

"I fed her and hopefully she'll sleep through the night, I have to agree with those… television shows you were making we watch before having me attend those lessons on that… holodeck of yours. Why are you constructing such vessels?"

"Better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them."

"I understand even if I am a little terrified of what they can do."

"I know, truth be told, I have bigger plans my dear… sadly even if we did explore in the beyond there are always enemies to find… besides I've been wanting to explore space all my life."

"I do as well now, to walk forests on other worlds, to commune with nature where no Elf has likely tread. Thank you for opening my eyes to the worlds beyond our own."

"We know only what we wish or need to know dear Deedlit, you have both now." With that the two crawled into bed, keeping an ear open in case of a plaintive cry from their child.

_*Pagebreak*_

_Sircans Star system _

_Cilarista homeworld of Xanroth_

_Capitol city of Jastar_

_Emperor's quarters _

Having returned from the Vadakass system, Xapferey had wanted peace and quiet with his wife. That and to give the engineers aboard the racial flagship S.S Sharnorasian a break from his constant requests to retune the inertial dampeners.

Once more he cast his mind towards Camelot and Merlin's home. From there he had determined that the Dorcha attack had forced the city into a highly defensive position. Surprisingly, Arthur despite Camelot's rules against magic was speaking with the court physician and Merlin about it. Projecting his will forwards, Xapferey made an avatar to speak with Arthur and the ones there.

"An ambitious plan young Pendragon, but it won't work."

"Who are you Sorcerer? Come to try and assault Camelot when it is supposedly weak?"

"Hardly young one, please sit, I have a proposal to discuss."

"I have nothing to say to a Sorcerer."

"**SIT DOWN BOY!" **Xapferey roared, his voice filled with divine power and such a powerful suggestion that even Merlin was awed at the power and all three were helpless to disobey. "I am no common Sorcerer Arthur Pendragon I am a God."

Xapferey strode to the window where the Dorocha could be heard shrieking and flying about. He casually caught one in his fist and brought it inside.

"The touch of the Dorocha bring icy death to all… Disembodied sprits of the dead… rank amateurs, I could make better undead than this while completely stoned and in a coma," Xapferey said in complete disdain as he showed them the trapped spirit. With a slight grin Xapferey closed his hand over the Dorocha and brought it to his mouth and sucked. A small burp later Xapferey consumed the undead almost casually.

"Excuse me… that was nasty."

"You've made your point, you are no common sorcerer," Arthur admitted grudgingly.

"Magic is not all evil young man, much like the usage of a sword, it can be used to harm or to help. Slaver versus a knight if you will… but you shall see what I mean in time."

"What is your proposal than?"

"Truthfully Arthur I have been watching for awhile, when I can. I can offer you an escape from the Dorocha."

"You have proven that you can defeat the Dorocha, why do you not simply do that?"

"Because I have extremely powerful enemies Arthur… and they would destroy you simply because I even considered the notion of helping… how to put this. Hypothetically you have a large army moving through the lands and you are moving to counter a powerful nasty if not outright evil king. You or your scouts discover a very small village being raided by bandits, or being led by an evil man and his men. You wish to intervene but cannot because your enemies would notice and they would raze the village to the ground, kill the inhabitants, regardless of who they were or their age. Then alt the ground so nothing grows there ever again. Instead you offer small aid and facilitate their escape to better lands. Camelot is that small village, from my perspective and from the war that I am fighting I need all my forces on hand, I cannot spare any to protect you, and even minor protection would draw their attention."

"I see your point."

"Perhaps it would be wise to hear him out sire," Merlin added as Xapferey gave the manservant and hidden Warlock a small secret smile.

"_Merlin, summon the great Dragon Kilgarrah and tell him to bring the hidden egg and the sword you put in the stone, you will need it in the future," _The Cilarista lord sent to the young at the moment in his larger humanoid form, looking similar to Manaweaver though his human form was over 7'5 and his face hidden by a hood leaving only his gold Cilarista altered eyes to be seen.

"I'm not sure the people of Camelot would accept such an offer, god and safety from the Dorocha or not."

"Truth be told, very few of the people of Camelot bought into your father's rhetoric on magic. Some of the guards believe it, and a fair portion of the knights do… many have their doubts or are just afraid of being accused of sorcery."

"I will consider your proposal."

"Very well, I have a friend of a friend who will help shield Camelot from the Dorocha… she owes me a few major favors and she is nearly as powerful as myself. I will also make you aware of what your new lands will be like and what the king of those lands has done. Fear not gentlemen," Xaoferey added a power to his voice, one that conveyed the truth and to convince them that he was being truthful. "He will not leave you out in the cold, and this plan will get you both what you really want. To love and be who you want to be… You may call me Alecnor Arthur, Alecnor Sharnoras... be advised I will know if those who try to move to the lands of Lodoss are simply going to cause trouble there."

"I understand Lord Sharnoras… and I will consider your proposal and inform your… ally of when I have made my decision after evaluating everything I can of these lands of… Lodoss."

"Very well then, Lady Shadowshifter?" A black-feathered phoenix with purple eyes turned into a hauntingly beautiful dark haired woman with an aura of power that simply wafted off of her. Malika Shadowshifter, Grand Shadow Lich and second of the Darkwielder realm, a subset of the Sharnorasian high empire; she nodded at Arthur and walked to the window to wait.

A/N One more bit of Merlin, then we will have them meet up in time for other plans


End file.
